1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 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>\nSo far this summer I’ve had very little luck with Cedar Waxwings so even though ‘he’ was far from cooperative I was more than pleased to find this one in the mountains yesterday morning. After stopping my pickup I quickly got my lens on him but he only allowed me two quick shots before looking away. And he continued to look to his right for the rest of the time he was here so I have many shots of him with no eye contact. None.<\/p>\n
Because their feathers are so fine Cedar Waxwings (and some owls) are notorious among bird photographer’s for showing little plumage detail in photographs but this shot has oodles of it. I also like the background (a distant mountain valley), the pose and the even light on most of the bird. I’m less pleased by the shadows on his tail and wing but for some reason these particular shadows bother me less than most.<\/p>\n
This pose allows an unusually good look at the distinctive red waxy appendages on the wing secondaries so once again I couldn’t resist taking advantage of the excellent detail in the photo and zooming in on them. Bigly.<\/p>\n
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This huge crop of the same photo (5% of the original image,1 MP of 20 MP) provides the best waxy tip detail I’ve ever seen in my photos of wild waxwings. To me they look like tiny feathers in and of themselves.<\/p>\n
The number of red, waxy appendages on the wing secondaries varies on individual birds and females tend to have fewer of them. The red color is provided by a carotenoid pigment called astaxanthin. For many years it was believed that the function of the waxy tips was to protect the feather shafts from wear as the birds fluttered among the branches of cedar trees but there is no evidence for that hypothesis. Today they’re thought to be important status signals that function in mate selection.<\/p>\n
A few Cedar Waxwings have been noted to have yellow waxy tips instead of red. Now that’s a photo I’d love to get.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Notes: <\/em><\/p>\n\n- Blood-red astaxanthin is produced naturally by some freshwater microalgae. When the algae is stressed by lack of nutrients, increased salinity or too much sunshine astaxanthin is produced. Then animals who feed on the algae such as salmon, flamingos and many crustaceans (shrimp, krill, crab, lobster and crayfish) show the red-orange colors in their bodies to varying degrees.<\/em><\/li>\n
- Sorry about ‘bigly’. Couldn’t resist.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And what about those red, waxy feather tips?<\/p>\n
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