Tag: leucistic

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Weekly Prompts

Weekly Prompts: Bird Feeders

This is my contribution to the Weekly Prompts: Bird Feeders challenge.

First, I should admit that I have a love/hate feelings towards bird feeders. If I am living somewhere suitable for bird feeders there’s always some out. But for at least a decade, possibly two decades, I avoided photographing birds on feeders. That was due to getting frustrated with editors always picking the photo of a bird on a feeder over the same species in a natural setting.

An early photo of a leucistic juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker on a feeder. Published in a bird watching magazine to illustrate an article on feeding the birds with no mention of the leucistic plumage.

Leucistic Woodpecker on a suet feeder.

 

Another early photo, a male Eurasian Siskin on a feeder. A published photo where the editor ignored shots of the same bird in the tree with a natural background.

Eurasian Siskin on peanuts.

 

Fast forward 20+ years and there’s a male Black-throated Blue Warbler coming to eat the grape jelly in an Oriole feeder. Forget the rule about no photos of birds on feeders, I want a record of the behaviour.

Male Black-throated Blue Warbler.

 

Finally, a White-breasted Nuthatch hanging upside down on a suet feeder a couple of years ago.

White-breasted Nuthatch on feeder.

 

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Weekly Prompts

Weekly Prompts: Unusual

One photo immediately came to mind when I read the Weekly Prompts: Unusual prompt.

It was this photo of a leucistic juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker. Leucism is a lack of dark pigmentation making the affected species look a little like an albino. The pale brown areas on the birds head would normally be black.

Throwback Thursday: Great Spotted Woodpecker.

 

Then I thought about this photo. It shows a male Black-throated Blue Warbler pretending it’s an Oriole by eating the grape jelly in an Oriole feeder. As a member of the Wood Warbler family, or New World Warbler family depending on which reference you use, it normally feeds on insects.

Male Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Categories
Throwback Thursday

Leucistic juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Throwback Thursday travels back to Cheshire, England in the late 1980s.

This is a leucistic juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker. Leucism is a lack of dark pigmentation. A normal Great Spotted Woodpecker is mostly black and white with red patches. The feathers that would normally be black are pale brown on this bird. The red cap shows that the bird is a juvenile.

Throwback Thursday: Great Spotted Woodpecker.

 

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Photo Challenges

Squares and Circles

My contribution to the Squares and Circles A Photo a Week Challenge.

I was having some trouble with the squares part of challenge until I thought about some of the bird feeders made out of square mesh. Then I remembered the circular Oriole feeder we got last year.

A leucistic juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding on a square suet feeder made of square mesh. Leucistic means that the bird lacks dark pigmentation, what should be black is light brown on this bird. The shot was published in a magazinea decade or so ago.

Leucistic Woodpecker on a suet feeder.

A male Eurasian Siskin eating peanuts out of a circular, square mesh feeder. This shot was published in a magazine a couple of decades ago.

Eurasian Siskin on peanuts.

A male Baltimore Oriole feeding on grape jelly out of a circular bowl in a circular feeder.

A Baltimore Oriole on an Oriole feeder.

A male Black-throated Blue Warbler pretending it’s an Oriole by eating grape jelly out of a circular Oriole feeder.

Male Black-throated Blue Warbler.