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- “Hawking is a feeding strategy in birds involving catching flying insects in the air. The term usually refers to a technique of sallying out from a perch to snatch an insect and then returning to the same or a different perch.”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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Hawking, especially when the insect quarry is tiny, is most often practiced by smaller songbirds that weigh very little so they’re extremely agile in flight. Speed and agility in flight are obvious and huge advantages for catching small insects in the air. Various warbler species who tend to be quite small are excellent hawkers, including Yellow-rumped Warblers who weigh only about 12 grams.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/white-crowned-sparrow-1058-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"white-crowned-sparrow-1058-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n
But this White-crowned Sparrow weighing significantly more than twice as much as a Yellow-rumped Warbler (29+ grams) was hawking tiny insects repeatedly and successfully. I never caught him in a photo as he was taking off after an insect like I did the warbler but here we see “him” stretching out just about as long as he could stretch in order to see insects in flight over sumac branches out of frame to our right.<\/p>\n
This was the first time I remember seeing White-crowned Sparrows hawking insects. I strongly suspect I’ve seen it before, possibly many times, but either I didn’t notice or it just didn’t register. It’s certainly a known behavior in the species – this from Cornell’s Birds of the World about White-crowned Sparrows:<\/p>\n
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- “Takes seeds and arthropods (insects) from soil surface and from plants, and hawks insects from perch<\/em>.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/white-crowned-sparrow-1072b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"white-crowned-sparrow-1072b\\"")
<\/p>\n1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n
Almost immediately after the previous photo was taken the sparrow flew to another nearby part of the sumac and resumed hawking from his new perch.<\/p>\n
I take this observation as evidence that I need to pay more and better attention in the field. Almost certainly I’ve seen White-crowned Sparrows hawking insects before so why didn’t it register? I suspect it might be because I’m too often preoccupied with the photography challenges of the moment at the expense of bird behaviors.<\/p>\n
Obviously I need to improve my multitasking skills.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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PS – I certainly don’t mean to suggest that only the smallest of songbirds hawk insects. There are far too many variables involved, including size and speed of the insect quarry, for that to be true. The tyrant flycatcher family, Tyrannidae, is evidence of that. Many of the flycatchers are almost as large or even larger than White-crowned Sparrows and they’re so skilled at hawking insects they’re actually named after the behavior. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A feeding behavior I was unaware of in this species. I should have been.<\/p>\n
- “Takes seeds and arthropods (insects) from soil surface and from plants, and hawks insects from perch<\/em>.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n