Another cactus wren in the Sonoran Desert outside Tucson, Arizona. No blazing setting sun to deal with this time, just the slightest bit of morning high overcast. He's found another jumping cholla cactus to perch on. I should mention that for this shot and the cactus wren picture I posted before, I used an audio tape to get the birds' attention. They are not generally shy to begin with, since they seem to know that even humans aren't going to get overly close if there's a cactus in the way (they actually build their nests right in the cacti, either using a woodpecker hole or wedging their nesting material around and between the spines), but because of how territorial they are, if they hear another cactus wren singing, they go from indifferent to inquisitive. I played the tape, and within a few seconds I had three different birds flying in from different directions to see what was happening.
This colouration is how cactus wrens look when they don't have a setting sun frying everything in bright orange-yellow light. Another random bit of trivia: they are the state bird of Arizona, where I photographed them.
7D mkII, 100-400 f/4-5.6 IS II zoom
ISO 800, f/7.1, 1/2000
DPP conversion, PS optimized (tiny crop, eye work, bill cleanup, and detail extractor).
Nice pose; the frontal view is a bit different from what one usually sees on a Cactus Wren image. Nice to get him without the blazing Arizona sun. Was this at that wonderful Desert Museum?
Thanks Bill. No, this was not at the Desert Museum. I was at an event about 30 minutes outside the city, and the parking lot where I was abutted the desert. Ten steps over the fence into the cacti, and you could play the tape and have cactus wrens all over the place.
Prickly situation
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