Yet another example of the almost unbelievable athleticism of birds.
Today’s post isn’t about high quality images – these are documentary quality only. Instead it’s about the lightning-quick gymnastic abilities of birds.
1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
Yesterday morning in the mountains the only reason I trained my lens on this juvenile House Finch was to attempt to get a positive ID. ‘She’ was far away so this version of the photo is cropped significantly. Even when my avian subjects are quite small in the frame I often attempt takeoff and flight shots so when I thought she might launch I instinctively fired off a quick burst.
Nothing of particular interest here, right? Just a common, fairly nondescript bird perched on a diagonal branch and not doing anything interesting.
1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
But less than 1/10th of a second later she had launched and already performed a jaw-dropping aerial maneuver. In not much more than her own body length she managed to rotate her body in flight so that her entire ventral surface was exposed to me. And notice that, as birds nearly always do, she kept her head perfectly level during the entire maneuver.
The amount of coordination and athletic skill required for such a maneuver is almost unbelievable and keep in mind this is a very young bird. Only a few weeks ago she was a tiny bobblehead in the nest, so weak and uncoordinated that she had great difficulty lifting her head to be fed by her parents.
I suppose some folks aren’t greatly impressed by such things, thinking something like “she’s a bird and birds do things like that.” But every time I capture something like this in my photos I marvel at the athletic abilities of birds. It’s something I find impossible to take for granted.
The two obvious questions, how did she do it? and why did she do it? remain a mystery to me and that’s part of the fascination of birds..
Ron
Amazing
Amazing shot!
Boy, every one of her feathers is fanned out ❗️ What a beautiful shot 😁
Thank you, Diana.
WOW! 🙂 Just never know and being prepared paid off here in spades! 🙂
You sure don’t, Judy.
The photos and contortions are impressive as is your identification of it as a juvenile House Finch. I wouldn’t have had a clue.
Lyle, to be perfectly honest I had some help with the ID.
Nothing “nondescript” about this little lady. She has a subtle beauty and grace about her in the first shot. And that second shot? WOWZERS!!! How do they do that??? Even the Russian judge would give her a “perfect 10!”
Pretty impressive flight stunt, huh Marty.
IF (hysterical laughter track here) I had seen this with my very own eyes I would have assumed they were playing tricks on me.
To have this incredible, impossible manoevre captured has boggled both my brain cells.
The why they do it is secondary to how they do it for me. If I could get my body to do things like that I would do so repeatedly. Just because.
Awe and struck.
Flabber and ghasted.
Thanks very much, EC. You’re obviously impressed by their abilities, as I am.
The sheer athleticism of birds is absolutely astounding! They routinely do things that just aren’t possible, and yet, there it is. They’ve done it. Evidently, the rules of physics and gravity simply don’t generally pertain to them. For YEARS, I’ve maintained that if the overall magic of birds doesn’t regularly drop your jaw to the ground, you really need to check that you’ve still got a pulse! If you fail to exhibit a gobsmacked reaction, you just might have passed on without knowing it yet!
Feather-covered wings are the secret to this mastery of the known (human) world. I mean, imagine the sheer hubris involved in jumping into space believing that thin air (to us) will suspend you! And darn it, it does!! If we humans attempt their normal feats of gravity-defying activities, it results in a resounding THUD!
I’ve seen such amazing feats in the field through falconry that I have to carry a small shovel with me just to scrape my jaw off the ground. Often, my eyes don’t operate fast enough to fully comprehend what they’ve done. Only through photography and video can I slow it down to where my substandard human brain can process what really happened.
And further, my ability to describe what happened often fails miserably. While I spent years making my living describing the antics of race cars/drivers, I routinely run out of appropriate words to create a word picture for those who haven’t seen it. In short, our language just doesn’t go where it needs to go to properly describe the wonderfulness of birds–there just aren’t enough colors in the word crayon box.Conversely, I never had a problem describing race cars/drivers. But birds are a whole ‘nother matter. They exist in another dimension unknown to us!
Again, thank you!
“my eyes don’t operate fast enough to fully comprehend what they’ve done.”
Mine don’t either, Laura. Which is one of the reasons I love bird photography so much. It allows me to see the ‘un-seeable’.
Gymnasts have nothing on her!
🙂
I’m mighty impressed, not only by the athleticism–remarkable ! But also
by the beauty and clarity of the lovely fans of wings and tail–even a
“plain” little bird is a wonder when one can see the complexity and perfection
of function that its anatomy comprises—thanks for this vision……
What Kris said! 🙂
🙂
“even a“plain” little bird is a wonder when one can see the complexity and perfection of function that its anatomy comprises”
Well said, Kris. In at least some ways there’s no such thing as a ‘plain’ little bird.
What a remarkable acrobatic feat. And kudos to the photographer for catching it. We have two or three families of House Finches in the backyard so I almost never take photos of them when I’m out so I must admit that I would never have gotten a shot like this.
“We have two or three families of House Finches in the backyard so I almost never take photos of them when I’m out”
That’s me to a ‘T’, Everett. I need to change my ways.
Amazing feat and a more amazing photo!
Thanks, Kathy.
Really great to see, nice to learn, very enjoyable post today. Always thank you, today an extra thank you.
Much appreciated, Richard.
So much fun to see things documented in your photos that I’ve never noticed or even imagined!
Thanks, Mary.
On, it’s hard for me to even mentally comprehend not only that we are now seeing the finches full ventral surface but that the head appears as you said level, and we’re looking at the same view of it! Thanks for catching it, but I’m still scratching my head…
Alison, I can’t see how one can avoid scratching their head when they see something like this and really think about what’s involved. I know I can’t.