SEARCHING IMPRESSIONS OF LIFE: Cavaliere d'Italia

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Fight!

During the mating season it's common to see Black-winged Stilts fight for a female or for territory. Confrontations do not last very long but are sometimes pretty rough, with males hitting the adversaries with their long legs, or beaks, sometimes trying to drown the other bird – or that anyway is what it seemed when I was taking pictures of some groups of birds fighting. A female is often nearby, watching, waiting for the final response and see who's the winner. But sometimes, probably when there are couples already formed, you can see couple vs couple, when both male and female attack or defend their area from the other birds.

Everything happens very quickly, with the birds often "jumping" very high and it is not easy sometimes to keep them within the frame or to freeze the movements perfectly. Here are a few shots taken during the fights.

EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF 600 mm f/4L IS USM f/5.6 1/2000sec ISO 500

EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF 600 mm f/4L IS USM f/6.3 1/2000sec ISO 640

EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF 600 mm f/4L IS USM f/5.6 1/1600sec ISO 640

EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF 600 mm f/4L IS USM f/6.3 1/2000sec ISO 640

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Knights

That's the Italian name of this elegant bird: Cavaliere d'Italia, the Knight of Italy. I must confess I don't know the origin of this name, but indeed the bird looks like a tall knight with its long legs and black and white colors.

The Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) is the specific subspecies living in Italy and Europe, and also in Asia and Africa, but there are other subspecies living in other continents and in fact I have some shots of the "same" bird taken in California as well (will show in another post later). I even found out there is one living just in Hawaii, the Hawaiian Stilt.

I hadn't taken a photo of this bird yet, so I decided to go to Racconigi right during the mating season. Many couples of birds are coming back from Africa and stop at this wetland to nest, and I was able to take hundreds of shots of the birds feeding in the shallow water, fighting for their territory and mating.

The legs of the Black-winged Stilt are extremely long vs the size of the body and are a distinctive element of this bird. The silhouette of the Cavaliere d'Italia is very elegant and I love to look at them especially when they fly and keep their legs parallel to the body and stretched out.

Here is a first batch of shots, mainly portraits. I'll share more pictures during the upcoming days showing the territorial fights and other behaviors, and I hope to go back when the eggs etch to try and shoot the newly born chickens.