Birds pick, probably more than anything else.
A photograph of a picking bird just doesn’t work.
However, an exception can be made for a big Great Egret with long flowing feathers.
Specs; OM -1 mk2, OM 100-400 II, Lightroom.
Egret, ACE Marsh
Birds pick, probably more than anything else.
A photograph of a picking bird just doesn’t work.
However, an exception can be made for a big Great Egret with long flowing feathers.
Specs; OM -1 mk2, OM 100-400 II, Lightroom.
Beautiful birds Ted ! They look as if they’ve come straight out of a wedding shop with those special feathers. How come we’re stuck with the ugly versions here in Belgium? It’s almost as if you took all the good-looking ones with you when you went over there. 🙂
Those wedding shop looks had them 99.9% extinct. Billions were killed for their tail feathers. The feathers were sold by the pound/gram so how many does it take to make just 1 pound 😵💫. The feathers were used for women’s hats.
Wow, I had no idea the trade was that extreme. Suddenly my “wedding shop” comment feels rather inappropriate! Amazing that those beautiful birds managed to recover from such a terrible period.
The feather trade was brutal. However an artist and naturalist John J Audubon began painting the Great Egrets (now the logo of Audubon Society) and changed everything. Actually Audubon did some of that work right near my home. Many Egrets we photograph are referred to as coming from ‘the swamp ‘. Locally photographers refer to a part of a local plantation as ‘the swamp’. Audubon was a family member. Small world after all.
I think I know Audubon from some documentaries or films I’ve seen on TV over the years. His name certainly rings a bell. Small world indeed, especially with your connection to where he worked.
😊😊
It’s a beauty for sure.
Even after the long bridal feathers are gone they still have that look 😊😊
That first one looks contorted, I really had to look at it to make sense. It is a beautiful bird.
Always picking and preening, long necks in weird positions. Birds like this have glands, I believe under their wings’ that provides oil the birds use to clean their feathers. Clean feathers are much lighter and allow better flight. Look deep and everything is complicate 😆
Preening is critically important for feather maintenance on all birds. And most birds do have a uropygial (preen oil) gland that they used to dress the feathers to keep them clean and relatively waterproof. But Great Egrets rely much more heavily on the use of powder down, a powder formed of the eroded ends of specialized down feathers. Powder down feathers don’t molt, they just grow continuously, and are worn down to a satisfactory length through the bird’s grooming efforts. Their uropygial gland is almost vestigial.
Very cool, thanks. I only knew pieces of that. There’s a reason for everything they do, and great fun watching and learning.