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I went to the county park today to look for birds to photograph. After about half an hour, I noticed a pair of grackles (and not purple martins as I wrote previously) in the midst of a courtship ritual. The male, shiny and bluish purple, was placing some food into the open beak of the brown female. This is what some male birds do to convince a potential mate that they are up to the task of taking care of her and their future brood.
This may be the same couple a few minutes later.
Last week, I also saw the same behavior with our backyard cardinals. A female cardinal kept fluttering her wings while perched over a bowl of sunflower seeds that I had put out on our deck. At first I thought she was sick or in distress, as she would not eat anything. Then a red male cardinal swooped in, picked a seed and placed it in her beak. He did it twice again. I ran to get my camera, but by the time I came back the pair had flown away.
Japanese Crane Courtship Dance… 🙂
http://myvirtualplayground.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/rivers-woods-waterfalls-towns-to-cross-all-over-hokkaido/
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Thank you for the link!
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Nice…although the birds in these pics are Grackles, not Martins. 🙂
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Thank you for pointing out their correct name. I will make the corrections.
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The more I observe, the more I am convinced that other species do a fair amount of thinking and understanding, that may be clearer, certainly less cluttered, than our own. We have a resident pair of crows that groom one another in the same dead snag almost every evening, but too far way to capture well. Great photos and piece. 🙂
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Thank you John. I also see crows once in a while, but the moment I aim my camera at them they fly away cawing in protest. 🙂
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Great photos, and I always enjoy learning more about birds–thanks!
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Thank you so much! I am learning as well as I strive to take more photos of our avian friends.
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