{"id":6489,"date":"2012-07-08T16:27:32","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T22:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=6489"},"modified":"2012-09-02T15:35:40","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T21:35:40","slug":"at-long-last-the-red-crown-patch-of-the-western-kingbird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/08\/at-long-last-the-red-crown-patch-of-the-western-kingbird\/","title":{"rendered":"At Long Last – The Red Crown Patch Of The Western Kingbird"},"content":{"rendered":"

Occasionally, even a mediocre shot can make my day.<\/p>\n

I’ve known about the red\/orange crown patch of the Western Kingbird for some time now but until yesterday had never seen or photographed it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1600, f\/8, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

It normally lies concealed under the gray feathers on the top of the head and is rarely seen or photographed.\u00a0 Normally\u00a0the crown patch\u00a0is only revealed before or during an attack on another kingbird or a\u00a0potential predator threatening its nest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western\u00a01\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n

The most common aggressive pose toward other kingbirds\u00a0 is called the wing flutter, where the wings are extended and rapidly fluttered in small arcs.\u00a0 But typically the crown patch is not exposed during a wing flutter unless an actual\u00a0attack on the other kingbird is imminent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve included this image and the next one to show how well the crown patch is concealed.\u00a0 Here, as this kingbird ejects and throws off a pellet, you have a good look at the top of the head with no suggestion of a red crown patch beneath the\u00a0overlying crown\u00a0plumage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0And another kingbird, banking at takeoff, gives us a pretty good look at the top of the head with no hint of the patch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

But yesterday a gull made the mistake of landing on a perch very close to this kingbirds nest and it’s a huge understatement to say that the kingbird was unhappy about the situation.\u00a0 The feisty little kingbird repeatedly dived at the\u00a0gull, often coming within a couple of inches of the gulls head.\u00a0 The action was fast\u00a0and the kingbird was difficult\u00a0to track in flight so I prefocused just above the gulls head and fired away whenever the kingbird came close.\u00a0 I\u00a0only noticed the revealed crown patch\u00a0when I got home and processed the images.<\/p>\n

Bird behaviorists call this the “revealed crown patch” display.\u00a0 But there’s another related display called “raised, revealed crown patch”, where the bird first reveals the crown patch by parting the gray feathers on the head and then raises the red feathers of the crown patch through the parted area – sort of like a red mohawk haircut.\u00a0 This latter display is normally\u00a0only made by the winner after a fight between kingbirds though it has also been documented when humans directly\u00a0threaten their nest.<\/p>\n

No, it’s not a great image and it\u00a0has little to offer aesthetically.\u00a0 But I’ve always been fascinated by bird behaviors and I’m tickled pink (err… red) to get this documentary shot.\u00a0 I’ve always wanted to see the crown patch and now I’ve photographed it.\u00a0 Maybe one day I’ll get the crown patch\u00a0“raised” (but I surely won’t harass the birds at the nest to get it).<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Addendum – 7\/9\/12<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Wouldn’t you know it?…\u00a0 On the very next day after this post about my first ever photograph of the Western Kingbird crown patch, I get another shot that shows the patch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n

I found this bird on the road to Bear River MBR this morning.\u00a0 It flashed the patch several times to other kingbirds flying in the vicinity and I managed to get two shots that showed it partially revealed.\u00a0Perhaps it’s not as unusual to see or photograph the patch\u00a0as I thought it was but it’s sure been rare for me.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occasionally, even a mediocre shot can make my day. I’ve known about the red\/orange crown patch of the Western Kingbird for some time now but until yesterday had never seen or photographed it.   \u00a01\/1600, f\/8, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc It normally lies concealed under the gray feathers on the top of the head and is rarely seen or photographed.\u00a0 Normally\u00a0the crown patch\u00a0is only revealed before or during an attack on another kingbird or a\u00a0potential predator threatening its nest.     \u00a01\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f\/4 The most common aggressive pose toward other kingbirds\u00a0 is called the wing flutter, where the wings are extended and rapidly fluttered in small arcs.\u00a0 But typically the crown patch is not exposed during a wing flutter unless an actual\u00a0attack on the other kingbird is imminent.     \u00a01\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4 I’ve included this image and the next one to show how well the crown patch is concealed.\u00a0 Here, as this kingbird ejects and throws off a pellet, you have a good look at the top of the head with no suggestion of a red crown patch beneath the\u00a0overlying crown\u00a0plumage.     \u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc \u00a0And another kingbird, banking at takeoff, gives us a pretty good look at the top of the head with no hint of the patch.     \u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc But yesterday a gull made the mistake of landing on a perch very close to this kingbirds nest and it’s…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,334,395,675],"tags":[762,245,765,763,764,677,761,754],"class_list":["post-6489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-behaviors","category-birds","category-miscellaneous","category-western-kingbirds","tag-crown-patch","tag-pellet","tag-raised","tag-red-spot","tag-revealed-crown-patch","tag-tyrannus-verticalus","tag-western-kingbiird","tag-wing-flutter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-1GF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}