![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/sage-thrasher-0073b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sage-thrasher-0073b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nMale Sage Thrashers sometimes perform this display all day long but it’s sporadic, almost impossible to predict and they’re shy about doing it so it took me several mating seasons to successfully photograph the behavior.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The overall behavior occurs when males are establishing territory and trying to attract females. It begins when they fly in undulating circles, figure eights or ellipses, low over sagebrush before landing in it.<\/p>\n Then the actual bilateral wing display begins. During the process they raise one or both wings and flutter them for several seconds while singing almost continually. This one on Antelope Island several years ago had his back to me for much of the display but here I caught him looking back at me with his left wing lowered so we can see his face. I like both the behavior and the singing pose in this light.<\/p>\n Before Europeans arrived much of the west was covered with vast expanses of sagebrush so in most areas early settlers would rarely be out of earshot of Sage Thrashers but today their lovely and complex song has largely been replaced by the annoying sounds of irrigation sprinklers watering crops like alfalfa, potatoes and grain. When I’m hearing Sage Thrashers I often think of my great-great-grandfather Oliver Hunt Dudley and his family (including five children) who crossed the plains to Utah Territory as Mormon pioneers in 1851. They were almost surely very familiar with singing and displaying Sage Thrashers.<\/p>\n Over the years I’ve only rarely been able to photograph this courtship display well but this shot was taken on March 19 so the thrashers should be returning to our area very soon. This year I’m hoping to photograph more of the complex behavior, including their looping flight circles over sagebrush if I’m lucky.<\/p>\n And very persistent.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Male Sage Thrashers sometimes perform this display all day long but it’s sporadic, almost impossible to predict and they’re shy about doing it so it’s difficult tp photograph well.<\/p>\n