A little Grosbeak love (R rated)

palmor · 05-13-2008, 09:28 PM

I saw this female Rose-breasted Grosbeak sitting on our screen house frame in some decent lighting so I quickly grabbed my camera and opened the window. I took a few shots and she took this pose and started chirping in a way that I thought was a little strange. I soon found out what she had in mind, a male came over and stood next to her and the next thing you knew they started... well you see

John

Pentax K10D ,Tokina 400mm f/5.6 AT-X
1/250s f/8.0 at 400.0mm iso400

A couple of blown out feathers that I am too lazy to go back and fix right in PP now

Pentax K10D ,Tokina 400mm f/5.6 AT-X
1/750s f/8.0 at 400.0mm iso400

*SCGushue* · 05-13-2008, 09:37 PM

John,

I think the capture is pretty doggon' interesting. I don't recall ever having seen a better example of a "cloacal kiss" in all my undergraduate avian biology courses. Nice individual capture of the female RBGrosbeak too.

Stephen

*roentarre* · 05-14-2008, 03:35 AM

I thought this was not R rate. The bird is doing the morning stretch on the back muscle. That is quite a healthy thing to do!

Beautiful capture for the moment.

palmor · 05-15-2008, 05:41 AM

Originally Posted by SCGushue

John,

I think the capture is pretty doggon' interesting. I don't recall ever having seen a better example of a "cloacal kiss" in all my undergraduate avian biology courses. Nice individual capture of the female RBGrosbeak too.

Stephen

Thanks Stephen. It is the 1st time I've actually seen this behavior and it happened about 8 feet from the window! The last couple of years we've had 1 pair of Grosbeaks in the area and we were surprised to see 2 this year. I'm wondering if some of the chicks are coming back to nest.

Originally Posted by roentarre

I thought this was not R rate. The bird is doing the morning stretch on the back muscle. That is quite a healthy thing to do!

Beautiful capture for the moment.

Niki27 · 05-15-2008, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by roentarre

I thought this was not R rate. The bird is doing the morning stretch on the back muscle. That is quite a healthy thing to do!

LOL.

Very nice pictures

*Damn Brit* · 05-15-2008, 01:48 PM

Wow I didn't know birds knew how to give Thai massage.

*SCGushue* · 05-15-2008, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by palmor

Thanks Stephen. It is the 1st time I've actually seen this behavior and it happened about 8 feet from the window! The last couple of years we've had 1 pair of Grosbeaks in the area and we were surprised to see 2 this year. I'm wondering if some of the chicks are coming back to nest.

You are right in thinking that the young are returning. My German is bad but the term is called (phonetic sound is..) ORTSTROY . The English translation of this would be "nest faithfulness". The offspring of the parents are embedded (unknown reason) with the abilty to return to the same nesting site as their parents and to set up a territory or a home range in the vacinity.

It makes sense too if you think that the mortality of individual avian species is high, why not return to an environment that your parent had success in rearing their young.

Ornithology 101 over

Stephen

channeler · 05-15-2008, 03:48 PM

Beautiful (and graphic) captures John. That lens just keeps going on giving you sharp and colourful images.

Paul

**codiac2600** · 05-16-2008, 07:25 AM

Sorry I'm going to have to delete this thread due to it's outrageous pornographic scene here....

LOL, just kidding!

Great shot as always and you're so good with the birds now they want you to be part of their lives... literally!

*daacon* · 05-16-2008, 07:34 AM

haha nice series John - watching this makes you at least a godfather

cupic · 05-17-2008, 08:30 AM

Mother Nature in full swing

cheers