![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-0031-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0031-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPlus a close up look at the nictitating membrane in action.<\/p>\n
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1\/1250, f\/9, 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 This is one of the young Red-tailed Hawks I spent quite a bit of time with earlier this summer. The photo was taken on July 12 as ‘he’ was calling out, probably to be fed by one of his parents.<\/p>\n Typically I’d take a shot like this at f\/6.3 but his body was turned slightly away from me causing his tail to be a little closer to me than his head. I wanted to get him sharp from stem to stern so I took this and a few other shots at f\/9 to give me more depth of field. I was willing to sacrifice shutter speed because I was too close for takeoff shots anyway. I’m happy with the results.<\/p>\n Last night I was looking at this photo and lamenting the fact that we can’t see his feet so I scrolled through other photos of this bird to see if I had any where his feet can be seen. I don’t but two shots in the burst later. as he was closing his mandibles after calling out, I found a sharp, detailed and interesting photo of his mostly closed nictitating membrane.<\/p>\n So as I’m prone to do I cropped tightly on it to see what I could see.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The nictitating membrane (nictitans, from Latin nictare<\/em>, to blink) is a transparent, or more often translucent, membrane that can move horizontally across the eye. It’s often called a 3rd eyelid. Fully developed nictitans are found in many fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals but are rare in primates.<\/p>\n I’ve discussed the nictitans in several posts over the years but when I get a good, clear closeup photo of the membrane I’m always tempted to do it again.<\/p>\n After all, repetition is one of the keys to learning.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: These photos were taken in the morning with the sun low in the sky so notice that I have a catch light in the second photo, even with the membrane mostly closed. <\/em><\/p>\n That photo gives us a good look at something else that affects the ability of photographers to get catch lights in raptors – their overhanging brow ridge. Later in the day with the sun higher in the sky it’s much more difficult to get light in the eyes of diurnal raptors than it is in other birds because the brow ridge prevents direct sunlight from reaching the cornea.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plus a close up look at the nictitating membrane in action.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-0033-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0033-ron-dudley\\"")
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