![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/american-kestrel-3896-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-3896-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI wish birds would perch on rabbitbrush more often.<\/p>\n
For as much rabbitbrush as we have around here I sure don’t see birds perched on it as often as I’d expect.. Rabbitbrush flowers sometimes stay yellow and attractive long after the snow falls so they’re a refreshing bit of color in an otherwise drab landscape but I have relatively few photos of birds perched on them.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n So naturally I was delighted when I found this handsome male kestrel perched on rabbitbrush along the Antelope Island causeway in late December a few years ago. He was puffed up in the cold and for part of the time he had his lower face snuggled down into his plumage so I couldn’t even see his bill but for this shot he briefly pulled it back up where I could see it.<\/p>\n It’s almost an oxymoron to think a little assassin like a kestrel could look cuddly but at the time he sure looked cuddly to me.<\/p>\n I love the colors of both bird and perch against the clean background. In the raptor world there’s nothing quite like a male kestrel on flowering rabbitbrush to brighten up an otherwise dull and colorless landscape.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kestrels are in trouble in some areas of North America. Based on the North American Breeding Bird Survey there’s been a 51% decline in their numbers between 1966 and 2017 and anecdotally my observations of their numbers around here in recent years seem to agree with that trend.<\/p>\n But this fall and winter in my area their numbers seem to have increased noticeably so I’m hoping that’s evidence of a productive breeding season.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wish birds would perch on rabbitbrush more often.<\/p>\n