Female Red-winged Blackbird, Mill Creek Ponds, Eastern Iowa
If we want to talk about one of the most common birds here in Iowa, at least during the season without snow, it has to be the Red-winged Blackbird. They are omnipresent wherever there is open space. The males arrive a lot earlier in spring from the south than the females and everybody here knows this black bird with its striking red bar bar on the wings that gave this bird obviously its name. You may not agree, but I’m always intrigued by the beauty of the female blackbirds, in particular during breeding season.
A couple days ago I stopped at the Mill Creek Ponds in a side valley of the Mississippi River. The long time followers of my blog may remember that I have photographed breeding Trumpeter Swans many times before at this location, but to my disappointment no swans seemed to be there this year. As always, the blackbirds have their habitat between the reeds of the wetlands and around the Mill Creek Ponds. Of course plenty of male birds are there and defend their territories aggressively.
I really focussed on the female birds this time and tried to incorporate the reeds along the pond in the background. I believe photographing a common bird should include a certain quality of light, otherwise I won’t publish it. 6PM is still way before sunset, but this valley receives the last warm sunlight for the day a lot earlier. While the first photo is all about the beautiful plumage of the blackbird lady, the second one is all about the gesture.
I try to make it a habit to shoot the long lens with the 1.4 SIGMA teleconverter attached. Having 850 mm focal length on a full frame sensor camera makes it very desirable for bird photography. Shooting a lot more with this tool lately, my keeper rate went up quite a bit. I can afford to be choosy about what image to use for a blog post…😉
Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,
1. photo: @ 850 mm, 1/400 s, f/9, ISO 400
2. photo: @ 850 mm, 1/640 s, f/9, ISO 400