Three days ago I spent some time with a ravenously hungry but clumsy juvenile Green-tailed Towhee in the mountains. The lighting was difficult, the setting was busy and in some of my shots ‘his’ head was in shade, or it wasn’t sharp. More about that in a minute.
But who can resist the antics of an awkward and clumsy young bird? Or the intrigue in a photo of a perfectly normal and healthy bird that looks nearly decapitated.
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
I’ll admit, I did a triple take when I first saw this photo and others just like it. At first, second and third glance it looked to me like the bird had spent some time with the headsman at the Tower of London, who had botched the job. There doesn’t seem to be much holding the bird’s head onto his body. Of course it just looks that way because the poor bird is molting, big time.
But it looks so different it even fooled the algorithm of Canon’s animal/eye detection autofocus. Normally in a photo like this one my Canon R5 would place the active focus point on the bird’s eye in an instant. But with the head of this bird looking detached and so ‘different’ (especially with the position of the leaf behind it) my AF point wandered all over the place. So his head isn’t sharp in any of my photos while he was perched here.
The towhee was on a mission at the serviceberry bush. He was hungry and based on his enthusiasm, ravenously so. But he was young and inexperienced so…
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
he was like a bull in a china shop as he dove after the berry of his choice.
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
He got it in his bill but he was flailing and…
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
trying to keep from falling as he…
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
held onto the stubborn berry with his bill and his perch with his feet. But eventually the berry let go so…
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
he ended up hanging upside down with the berry in his bill.
1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
And even after all that, he still had his head.
Ron
Autor Ron Dudley
