{"id":94935,"date":"2021-02-15T05:30:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T12:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=94935"},"modified":"2021-02-15T10:33:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T17:33:59","slug":"the-towhee-twostep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/15\/the-towhee-twostep\/","title":{"rendered":"The Towhee Twostep"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it’s done in snow the results of the ‘towhee twostep’ can be pretty spectacular.<\/p>\n

Yesterday morning it was still heavily overcast after the snowstorm of the night before so I went looking for the same Spotted Towhee I’d photographed near the Jordan River the previous day. The lighting was so poor that most winter birds weren’t worth photographing but I hoped the colors and patterns of the towhee would help him to stand out better against the snow.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 1600, 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

I found him in the same area I’d photographed him the previous day, only this time the ground was covered with several inches of snow. In this particular spot some of the conifer twigs on the ground were sticking out of the snow so it was his favorite place to scratch for food.<\/p>\n

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1\/1250, f\/5.6, 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>\n

Anyone who’s ever watched a towhee scratch for food probably remembers their distinctive technique – a technique I’ve begun calling the “towhee twostep”. Some call it a “hop scratch” but avian researchers refer to it as the “bilateral scratch” because they scratch with both feet at the same time. The only way that can be accomplished is for the dual scratching motion to occur while the bird is in mid-air during a hop. Cornell’s Birds of the World describes the entire process this way:<\/p>\n