{"id":86203,"date":"2020-06-12T05:40:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T11:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=86203"},"modified":"2020-06-12T16:27:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T22:27:43","slug":"female-lazuli-bunting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/12\/female-lazuli-bunting\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Lazuli Bunting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plus new information on my recent posts about the nesting Red-tailed Hawks I’ve been following and the unusual nest building behavior of Cliff Swallows I documented.<\/p>\n

But first, something a little different from me.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, 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

Yesterday morning this female Lazuli Bunting landed on a fence right in front of me while I was watching the red-tail nest I’ll be mentioning below. Typically I’m not fond of man made perches but the more I look at the photo the more I like it.<\/p>\n

The bunting is sharp from stem to stern, I caught a nice head turn with great light on the entire bird and I think the fresh growth of sagebrush in the background provides a pleasing backdrop and interesting contrast to the artificial perch.<\/p>\n

And there’s something less tangible about the photo that also appeals to me. When I look at the image I sense a tension between the confining, almost perfect square of wire enclosing the bunting and the much less confining 5 x 7 aspect ratio of the entire cropped image. I’m typically not one to go all artsy-fartsy about my photos but in this case I do sense that visual tension caused by the frame within a frame and I like it.<\/p>\n

Besides, I have very few opportunities to photograph Lazuli Buntings.<\/p>\n

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Updates on recent posts:<\/em><\/p>\n

Readers know that because of our recent wild weather that included lots of wind and hail over several days I’ve been very concerned about the welfare of Red-tailed Hawk chicks in a nest I’ve been following.\u00a0 Some raptor nests in our area have been destroyed and chicks have perished. The last time I visited ‘my’ red-tail nest a couple of weeks ago there were at least three very young chicks that were so tiny I could barely see their bills when they raised their heads to be fed by one of their parents. So yesterday I was very relieved to find an intact nest still containing three healthy and growing chicks. At this point they appear to be about half-grown, their flight feathers are just beginning to come in. I’m not posting photos now to protect the location of the nest.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Yesterday I posted photos documenting Cliff Swallows collecting vegetation as nest building material<\/a><\/span><\/span>, a behavior that appeared to be at least unusual and possibly little-known or even unknown. Late yesterday I sent a link to that post to Dr. Charles Brown, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Tulsa and the coauthor of the Cliff Swallow account at Cornell’s Birds of the World. Dr. Brown responded late last night. Following is the most relevant portion of his email:<\/em><\/p>\n