Birds obviously can't reach their heads to preen their feathers with their bill. Instead they scratch using their feet. It's been known for a long time that birds do this in two ways, either with the foot over the wing or under the wing. Although the trait is relatively consistent within some families and orders of birds, there are notable exceptions to this. For example, most NA wood warblers are overwing scratchers but some are underwing. The taxonomic trends may be related more to shared ecology rather than taxonomy. Here's a Northern Parula showing the way they do it. Tree-dwelling warblers tend to scratch overwing and more terrestrial species, underwing.
Last edited by John Chardine; 06-15-2013 at 10:41 AM.
Reason: typo
John, if you understood the body language of birds a bitter better you'd be completely insulted right now.
I find it so tough to get these kind of pics. You've got to nail that instant when the bird isn't moving so fast so its head and foot are still in focus. Excellent shot!
I see what you mean Paul! Of course my charitable mind would never think that a bird may be doing this!
My approach here was to lay on the 10fps on the 1DIV and maybe one would be OK, i.e. not too blurry due to motion. The big problem is that the actions are so fast that you almost always get major blur. Here's the techs for the image:
Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4x, @ 700 mm
Program: Manual
ISO 1600, 1/640s, f/5.6
Exp. comp.: 0.0
1/640s did not cut it for the foot at least.
By the way, just noticed the first frame in the series shows the bird has dropped its wing but has not lifted the foot yet. I guess they do this, make sure they are balances, then bring the foot up. The BG is unusual for this arboreal bird, it being the red cliffs around the Bay of Fundy.
Last edited by John Chardine; 06-16-2013 at 10:57 AM.
Yowzers! That's quite a shot for 1/640. It is neat to see how the bird moves the wing out of the way so the leg can tuck in without interference from the flight feathers. As I take more photos, I'm finding that I notice more things like this that were very difficult to see through binoculars. I also like the fact that you can see the yellow soles to the bird's foot.
I managed to get this scratcher at Barnegat this winter, but I was able to shoot at 1/2000. Makes things a LOT easier.
Scratch that itch
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