Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult Male - X
Observation details
Probably the same two birds as yday. Initially picked up the (probable) female in the road and had superb views as they foraged amongst the bushes. Whilst watching this bird Dad picked up a distant displaying male so we drove closer to have a look. Here we had great scope views of it doing the very amusing headless chicken display! By this point it had moved towards a different road so we drove round and had point blank views of it foraging by the roadside before it eventually wandered off. The display begins when the male raises the black filoplumes on its neck to curve up and arch over its back. It may stay like this for up to a minute, in some cases then relaxing and lowering them and no display follows. But if the display continues, the bird lowers its neck onto its back and begins to run, immediately raising the white neck filoplumes so these form a 'powder-puff' extending from the front of the neck over the head where they meet with the raised white crest, that extends the 'powder puff' onto the back. In full display the male runs in apparently random directions for up to a minute, presumably finding it difficult to see where he's running as the vision must be seriously obscured by all the feathering. Finally, as the bird slows to a halt, the head comes up and is then thrown backwards and jerked forwards once only. It's impossible to watch this display and not be amused. Ridiculous and yet fantastic!!
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 7D Mark II
- Lens
- EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
- ISO
- 400
- Focal length
- 312 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/5.6
- Shutter speed
- 1/400 sec
- Dimensions
- 960 pixels x 640 pixels
- Original file size
- 199.61 KB