{"id":158,"date":"2022-10-27T14:08:53","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T18:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/?p=158"},"modified":"2022-10-27T14:14:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T18:14:16","slug":"a-view-to-a-preen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/2022\/10\/27\/a-view-to-a-preen\/","title":{"rendered":"A view to a preen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A telephoto camera lens is somewhat equivalent to a pair of binoculars when trying to identify a particular bird: It gives a close-up view from which one can identify via the features seen. However, even with a telephoto lens, that isn’t always possible for a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Of course, at home, an enlarged photo will (hopefully) show everything clearer. In the field, that option isn’t available (except for the LED screen on a digital camera), especially when the subject bird assumes atypical positions as when preening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Preening.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many birders could identify the subject from the first photo. I couldn’t. Nor did I have the time to pause to look at an enlargement of the digital image, because the bird kept changing positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Preening.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Amazing how many different positions a preening bird can take. I trusted that eventually the bird would assume a “normal” position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Preening.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The bird deserved credit for the amount of cleaning it was accomplishing, and I kept on taking photos. I knew my time would come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A female or an immature male purple finch.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At last! A clear stance from which I could identify the bird: either a female or an immature purple finch. A first-year male has the same coloration as a female. By year 2, a male purple finch has his own colors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A male purple finch.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The male purple finch was perched in a tree on the opposite side of the path. He wasn’t preening but seemed content watching the other doing all the work. Life is like that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A telephoto camera lens is somewhat equivalent to a pair of binoculars when trying to identify a particular bird: It gives a close-up view from which one can identify via the features seen. However, even with a telephoto lens, that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,15],"tags":[41,5,42],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-wildlife","tag-finch","tag-photography","tag-purple-finch"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}