Singing male Horned Lark close up – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
This singing male Horned Lark was close enough to me that I could take portraits of him while he sang two days ago and I believe the reason he was so close was that his urge to find a mate overcame his natural wariness. This male and another male were very close to each other and both of them were near the side of a dirt road singing and actively moving around. It didn’t look like a territorial display to me but then I am just a mere human and don’t speak “bird” though sometimes I seriously wish I did so I could easily tell what the birds I photograph are actually saying to each other.
I’ve only been this close to this species a few times prior to this experience and I knew right away that I wanted to take a few portraits of this singing male Horned Lark. It was challenging because he kept moving around and it was hard to keep the focus on his face. I was pleased that in a few of the images I too that he was singing so that his bill was open and showed how black the insides of the lark’s bill is.
I’m happy that I took the time to take a few close ups of this Horned Lark because who knows, I may never be as close to this species as I was to this bird.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Horned Lark photos plus facts and information about this species.
My husband and I were there at the Bear River Bird Refuge yesterday. It was really cool. It would be cool to meet you there.
I absolutely love your close-ups/portraits, Mia. You have such a marvelous eye for them! 🙂 The feather details remind me of amazing drawings made with colored pencils and seeing the horns up is such a treat.
Beautiful pic Mia. Love the detail and subtle colors. Thanks.
I sure wish I could get a close up of a Horned Lark. They are the flightiest little things. Just a movement of aiming the camera seems to spook them. Great shot.
It is great to “speak bird”. After living so closely with some bird species both Haley and I can understand their language. When we are outside and hear certain calls we understand what the call means.Our attention goes to that bird and we watch it’s behavior to see if we got it right. We learned that house sparrows have what we called names. They had specific calls for a specific bird. The bird called would answer with a “what?” tone to its call, the uncalled birds would not respond. We got to know the birds names and could tell who they were calling.