![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/american-white-pelican-4988-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-white-pelican-4988-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAmerican White Pelicans are a species I should train my lens on more often. While they’re sitting on the water they often don’t make a very interesting subject but getting that huge 16 lb. body airborne is a real struggle so photos of them taking off have much more interest for many of us.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Two days ago at Bear River MBR I was mostly just watching a group of pelicans on the water when one of them took off. Often when that happens group mentality sets in and the entire flock immediately follows suit but this time they seemed to take turns, one after another. That gave me enough time to grab my “baby lens” (I was too close to use my 500mm) and fire off a few shots of several of the pelicans as they struggled to gain enough speed to become airborne. This is one of those photos.<\/p>\n I got several interesting shots of them with their wings down and wings up but the upper background is so dark that their black primaries seemed to disappear when their wings were up. I typically don’t get quite as much sharpness and detail using this smaller zoom lens as I do with my 500mm and we see that here but I still like the shot and much prefer it over more detailed photos that almost certainly would have had clipped or cut off body parts. I love having that smaller but more versatile lens by my side as a standby.<\/p>\n This bird is a typical post-breeding adult. After breeding season adults develop a dark head and lose the “horn” sticking up from their upper mandible. In this individual we can still see a slightly raised area on the upper bill where the horn had been attached.<\/p>\n American White Pelicans breed here in northern Utah in large numbers, particularly on Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake. Each pair typically produces two young but generally only one of them survives because its sibling is harassed or killed by its nestmate, a form of siblicide.<\/p>\n Even though siblicide is far from unique to pelicans I’ve often wondered how and why such a seemingly bizarre behavior would evolve.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" American White Pelicans are a species I should train my lens on more often. While they’re sitting on the water they often don’t make a very interesting subject but getting that huge 16 lb. body airborne is a real struggle so photos of them taking off have much more interest for many of us.<\/p>\n