View allAll Photos Tagged Behaviour
Stonechats are so photogenic. I love to photograph them at any opportunity. They can often pose for the camera very well and will tolerate a close approach if you are patient and careful. I photographed this one last week while she was very active, trying to avoid the attentions of a male bird, which was chasing her around. I wonder if it was preliminary behaviour prior to attempting a second brood ?
Thank you for having a look at my photos. Comments or faves are very welcome and much appreciated.
They love to perch on the dead thistles and pick the seeds out. A behaviour that is also common among the Chickadees and the Yellow-crowned and White-Crowned Sparrows.
Think it might be a juvenile.
Spotted two of these amazing looking waders at Charca de Suarez in Granada, Spain. They put on a wonderful behavioural display waving their bills around in the air. Got more shots will put on later.
A southbound migrant, this late summer/ early fall migrant is exhibiting some late, and perhaps misguided, nesting behaviours.
The seeming rise in the number of Cape May Warblers, as a rough percentage of migrants found in Ottawa during both northbound and southbound migrations, has been a lot of fun for birders and photographers. Once the variations in fall plumage (the drabber post-breeding shades) had been mastered, these birds became highlights of local birding - active, social, and relatively uninterested in people.
This was one of the occasions when the 100-400 lens came in handy, as I was able to move the lens instead of stumbling backwards to frame the image.
Guiding friends from Netherlands (who got +200 lifers in 2 weeks with me), they asked me to drive to see what was happening around Río San Juan, just next to Nicaragua border. I was expecting to find Green Macaws (we did find them later!), but first we found, unexpectedly, 3 Scarlet Macaws feeding on a big tree, in the middle of a cow pasture. They are pretty uncommon in northern Caribe. It seems they were 1 establised couple with 1 intruder, event which gave us some interesting action shots: 2 were feeding on a big bromeliad, third one was trying to steal the bride.
Since it was very early in the morning, sun was just in front of us so we had to use a lot of compensation exposure. A minute they were very quiet and nex minute they were fighting, and I got a lot of cropped birds on the photos =S , some of them over or under exposed too. In 5 minutes of action we got some sweet images showing their very special behaviour. Definitively, birds with great personality.
Thanks for reading, and if you ever visit Costa Rica and need a good guide, or just cool driver to take you wherever you need to visit in CR, Panamá or Nicaragua, please dont hesitate to contact me to ask for any detail.
PROMOTION CODE: 'needTHATbird2' =)
A closer view of a previous upload, of an adorable male leafcutter bee, probably Megachile centuncularis (patchwork leafcutter bee), feeding on the pollen of a calendula flower in my garden last summer. I often saw these males (and female Megachile centuncularis, which are far easier to ID) at these stunning flowers.
Posting tonight as I am hoping to get away early tomorrow if conditions allow.
The last post had a House Finch and House Sparrow, both young and getting along well in the rain. Here an older sparrow has caused a bit of a rucus as a House Finch appears to be thinking, "Hey buddy, what's up? I have not done anything." At least that is the way I saw it. The House Finch was simply perched besides the House Sparrow.
Even though the tail feathers are clipped here, I am thrilled to have got this shot. So much better than a simple static shot (although I like them as well, but not as much) Action and behaviour, in my opinion can be of poor technical quality as long as the behaviour is interesting. I would love to hav emore shots like this, behavioural shots that is, not necessarily shots with an aggressor.
OBSERVE Collective
All images are © Copyrighted and All Rights Reserved
germanstreetphotography.com/michael-monty-may/
This building is the work of two former students of Mies Van der Rohe. It shares the basic concepts put in practice by Mies in many of his buildings, but in this case the structrure is covered by a pronounced, curved skin.
These two male Blackbucks were fighting for the coveted female herd. The one on the left was a challenger while the right one was defending its territory - I knew this since I was at the place and not from this picture.
The Right Blackbuck pushed the left one away until the challengers head was turned completely and he was pinned down. The challenger left the field gracefully, but as if to say - "I will be back" !
This competitive behaviour to please the females is known as "Lekking". Something that I read as not very common in animal kingdom.
Blackbucks are a common species of antelopes found in the bird sanctuary that I visited. They numbered in 100's with the ratio of females outweighing males by a big number.
Thanks in advance for your views and feedback.
Laid back, but not very easy going.
During the mating season, male coots will act aggressively towards other males to establish and/or protect a breeding area. One behaviour I've seen lots is running and flapping aggressively towards a rival at high speed. On rare occasion, I've seen them engage in a classic coot fight. I had never seen it up close.
As shown in the photo, they lay back in the water with their wings stretched out behind them. They will then spar with the legs, trying to get an advantage over the other coot. If they can, they will push themselves upright with their wings while pushing the other combatant underwater. Injury or worse is not unheard of.
There must have been something in the water on this day, as the fighting seemed to be constant amongst many different pairs. This behaviour is no longer a rare event for me to witness.
Morus Bassanus
Bempton Cliffs
Greeting behaviour, which occurs between a pair whenever they meet, not just at initial bonding for mating.
Two points about this image of a male mountain bluebird. First, the rich blue of the male is intense. However, depending on the angle of the light shining on it, that same blue can look sky blue. An amazing transformation that is due to a lack of of blue pigment. As per Mr. Google, '...their blue coloration is a structural effect, not a pigment-based one. The unique structure of their feathers scatters light in a way that enhances blue wavelengths. Different angles and intensities of light hitting the feather's intricate structure can result in a range of blue tones....'
The second point is the pose the bird has assumed. It is stretched out, alert to the calls/actions of its mate off in the distance. Many birds do this in various situations where it pays off to understand its situation and be ready to take appropriate action.
Eared grebes have a variety of interesting bonding behaviours. I'm going to try to describe one of them. This images shows shows a single frame from a sequence (wish I had a video) where the male and female grebe face each other and are slightly puffed up. They vocalize, turn their heads, tilt their heads down and away from each other and do a quick bit of preening on their own neck area, face each other again, turn to the opposite side, and preen again. This is repeated a few times. Quite intriguing.
The expression from the Atlantic puffin, because of how the eye looks, reminds me of the guilty look a child might give when caught doing something they feel they really shouldn't be.
And, this is another example of a puffing trying to bite off something that would be challenging for a human to break. Junipers are tough! The bird did give up.
The young male moose seemed to be following the female but keeping its distance. It approached ever closer, but in a subdued way. No brashness from the young 'bull' at all. The female then initiated a short bout of fisticuffs (hoofticuffs?) and the male started moving off with the female and calf in half-hearted pursuit.
My best guess based on behaviour and antler size is that this is a third-year male and is the offspring of the female. She is encouraging it to move on and be fully independent. Anyone else have any thoughts on it.
The robin is on high alert. There was another robin in the garden and he did not like that one bit. So after chasing him around and making him leave the garden he found himself a high perch to stand guard :-). You gotta love them
Barn owl mantling its prey on a fence post.
Mantling is a behavioural trait where birds of prey shield prey with their wings, with the purpose being protecting it from other predators/scavengers.
Over the winter months, I usually put out a few apples and sultanas for the ground feeding birds like Blackbirds. They would sit in the trees and wait for me to come out.
Then they edged closer and would wait on the garden fences.
Now that spring is here, the visiting birds have moved on but the local blackbirds are coming even closer.
One in particular is doing close fly-bys in front of the kitchen window. To and fro until it sits on a perch and peers at me.
Needless to say, I go out with some apple. It doesn't even fly off any more.
I am aware that they should be foraging for their own food at the moment but the ground is very dry. Unusually, we've had very little rain. Hopefully that will change and their diet can be more wormy.
Every once in a while you are surprised by the behaviour of the critter you are photographing. In this case, the great grey owl kept flying down the fence line, from one post to another, towards me. It would pause and check for voles, then move yet closer again. It then flew right past me, went across the road, and perched again to continue hunting.
This image was taken in the fall of 2024. I posted a shot of the same owl flying previously (www.flickr.com/photos/40724294@N04/54144281190).
OBSERVE Collective
All images are © Copyrighted and All Rights Reserved
germanstreetphotography.com/michael-monty-may/
Nel tempo lento dell’acqua ferma, la cicogna si raccoglie in sé stessa. Un equilibrio fragile di piume, luce e pazienza.
-----------------------------
In the slow time of still water, the stork turns inward. A fragile balance of feathers, light, and patience.
----------------
5046
This female eared grebe swam up to a 'love nest' in preparation for mating, but the male didn't show up. She turned, slipped on the wet slime at the edge a few times, then called out. Finally, the male arrived and the usual avian spring endeavors took place.
I could see three platforms of rotting vegetation in the cattails. They were used by a few pairs of grebes to mate, with one pair taking offense to any others trying to utilize the platform nearest theirs. They would chase them off. However, while the aggressive pair was otherwise 'engaged', a second pair would use the second platform for their own tryst. Once the first couple were finished mating, they would chase the others off again.
I assume these would become nests later. However, water levels rose and the existing platforms were underwater the last I checked.
Interesting info: This is the most common grebe in the world, apparently. Eared grebes are monogamous, and start bonding behaviours during the migration period.
In February of this year, before the pandemic changed behaviours and made birding trips impossible, I went on a solo jaunt for a couple of nights in Algonquin Park. It was mostly sunny, very cold, almost perfect weather for winter birding and bird photography.
This was one of my most exciting finds. The main highway that runs through the Park is a winding small road, frankly, but a road on which one can find many bird species and the occasional moose. But the shoulders are narrow and the corners often tricky, and so stopping is often dangerous.
So one is left with the small parking lots to trails that are unplowed in the winter. Snowshoes are super handy. And there were regular birding reports (when they were encouraging visits pre-pandemic) to give you a sense of where there might be birds to find.
This find was a fluke, as they often are. There had been reports that small flocks were visiting the parking lot of the Park’s Visitors Centre. There were a few there, but they were high up in the trees looking for cones or down on the ground eating the dirt/grit that was spread on the ground in the parking lot to help cars manage the snow. Crossbills eat the grit, drawing them to some unpleasant photo opportunities like parking lots, to aid their digestion of cones.
I noticed some birds flying behind the Visitors Centre along a line of tall pines. So I marched down the somewhat treacherous path along the side of the Centre, which is built upon a lookout. As I went down the side of the building, I saw the birds: dirt had been spread down below for the maintenance people in the Centre, and the birds were happier eating their grit there, without the cars in the parking lot.
This bird, a younger and somewhat timid creature, was waiting his turn, watching for an opening in the group of birds on the ground. He was perfectly perched for a photograph, and a light snow was starting to fall, making it a great Algonquin birding moment.