I often enjoy elements of incongruity in my images, particularly birds in unexpected settings. Chukars prefer steep, rocky, mountainous and dry terrain so in my experience with them it is atypical to catch them in a photograph with a body of water in the background. When it’s hot, as it is now, these birds drink large amounts of water but of course the Great Salt Lake is much too saline for them to drink from. So they spend nearly all their time higher up on the rocky slopes and drink from the fresh water springs in the area.
1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc
However, there is one thing that draws them to the shore of the lake this time of year – brine flies. Chukars are almost exclusively vegetarians and eat mostly leaves and seeds although they’ll consume insects “occasionally”. But apparently they can’t resist the bounty of hordes of brine flies found along the shore of the lake during July and August (I’ve posted a shot here of a Chukar gorging on these flies) .
I found this bird and several others along the shoreline yesterday. While I didn’t actually observe them consuming flies this time I’m confident that it was the flies that attracted them to the shore.
Ron
What a hadnsome bird! Fablous shot!
Fascinating — I’ve never seen this critter…! Thanks for the little lesson. 🙂
Thanks Christina – lots of folks have never seen a Chukar as their range is largely limited to the Great Basin.
My hope to see this wonderful bird again during my recent visit to Antelope Island, despite the fact I was looking for them intensively at places where I had seen them before, didn’t materialize. Makes me enjoy your image even more. Great wildlife photography and information as always. Thank you for sharing.
Kind regards,
Andreas
Thank you Andreas. I can well imagine that in one trip to the island you didn’t get the shot you might prefer. I’m out there regularly and still it’s rare for me to get nice images of them. I hope to meet you out there one day.
Thank you. A shot to brighten my day, of a bird I will probably never see.
We do that for each other Elephant’s Child. So many of the birds you post on your blog are species I will never see either – at least in the wild.