![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/peregrine-falcon-4428-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"peregrine-falcon-4428-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/em><\/p>\n1\/4000, 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>\n Very soon after sunrise yesterday morning I found myself looking at this Peregrine Falcon through my viewfinder. Peregrines are an unusual species for me so it goes without saying that I was delighted, even though ‘he’ kept his back to me for the entire time he was perched.<\/p>\n Larger falcons like Prairie Falcons and Peregrine Falcons have an unusual behavioral quirk they sometimes perform prior to takeoff – they spread, then raise and lower their wings slowly but repeatedly before eventually taking off. They don’t always do it but they do it often enough that I’d call it a ‘tendency’. That’s exactly what this guy did but I’m not including any of those shots because he was turned perfectly away from me so I couldn’t even see his face.<\/p>\n I figured he was about to take off and I was right. This shot was taken just prior to liftoff and his body posture made me almost certain that he was about to take off away from me and slightly to my right. I was of course hugely disappointed – the last thing I need is more butt shots, even if they’re of a Peregrine Falcon in flight.<\/p>\n But at the very last second the beautiful, wonderful falcon had pity on me and changed his apparent flight plan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, 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>\n As he slowly raised his wings one last time he twisted on his perch and prepared to take off to my left instead of away from me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, 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>\n This is two shots later in the burst and I absolutely adore it.<\/p>\n Followers of Feathered Photography often chide me (including yesterday) for pointing out flaws in my images so some readers may be shocked to know that I’m not going to nitpick anything in this image. I like everything about it including the warm light soon after sunrise, the head turn toward the viewer providing a catch light and eye contact, the slightly banking flight posture that allows us to see most of his dorsal surfaces and the partially flared alula<\/a><\/span><\/span> on his left wing. I even like his broken tail feather (I checked, it’s broken not missing) as evidence of the rigorous, even dangerous lifestyle of a Peregrine Falcon.<\/p>\n To top it all off the bird is tack sharp so there’s an amazing amount of detail even though I wasn’t very close to the bird.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, 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>\n As an indicator of just how sharp the falcon is, this version of the same photo has been cropped to only 10% of the original image (2 MP out of 20 MP). Even cropped this much there’s still plenty of detail to see part of the tomial tooth (falcon tooth) on his upper mandible and the nose cone (baffle, tubercle) inside his nostril. In my book to be able to clearly see the nose cone of a wild Peregrine in flight means the photo is sharp<\/em>.<\/p>\n But I paid a steep price for this image I like so much. After it was taken I clipped or cut off body parts in every subsequent shot in the series.<\/p>\n I’ll pay that price willingly but it’s still a painful one.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once in a great while in bird photography things go unexpectedly right instead of unexpectedly wrong.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/peregrine-falcon-4440-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"peregrine-falcon-4440-ron-dudley\\"")
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