#birds in the wild
The other day I saw something I’ve never seen before- a Sandhill crane who was missing an eye.
This beauty is still able to carry on with normal crane life, visualized here with her guarding and feeding her very cute little chicks.
Her other eye is normal and functioning, and it seems her mate is happy to keep watch of her blind side for her.
Sandhill cranes mate for life so I hope this pair is able to raise many healthy colts together throughout the years. They seemed a lovely couple.
Wait for it… there it is- the WIGGLE! This wiggly bird is the cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis), and this video demonstrates a very cool behavior that’s usually called “neck-swaying”. This is a somewhat uncommon hunting behavior where the bird quickly weaves its head and neck side to side as it approaches a prey item. We’re not entirely sure what the purpose of this hunting method is, but it is suspected to help the bird more accurately assess the distance of their prey, though others believe it is used to distract or disorient prey before the bird strikes. In any case, several studies in foraging behavior of this species suggest that strikes preceded by head-swaying are actually less successful than normal strikes. Although this video ends too soon (my camera was not cooperating), I can say that this particular wiggle did end successfully, as this cattle egret snatched up a very big bug.
Lovely little family of burrowing owls enjoying a warm lazy Sunday morning.
This burrowing owl is taking their job as den lookout very seriously!
