{"id":50753,"date":"2018-01-22T05:53:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T12:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=50753"},"modified":"2025-02-11T05:53:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T11:53:30","slug":"unusual-behavior-ring-billed-gull-preening-in-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/01\/22\/unusual-behavior-ring-billed-gull-preening-in-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Unusual Behavior – Ring-billed Gull Preening In Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull in flight in late afternoon light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/3200, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When you spend as much time in the field observing and photographing birds as I do you are bound to see unusual behaviors now and then, yesterday was one of those days for me. While photographing birds at my local pond yesterday afternoon I noticed a Ring-billed Gull flying in over the pond and what caught my eye about this particular gull was that the belly of the bird seemed more rounded than normal so I aimed my lens towards the gull, locked on my focus and took some photos of it thinking that later on I could view the images on my monitor and perhaps figure out why the bird’s belly seemed so large.<\/p>\n

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull preening breast feathers in flight – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/4000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Three frames later I was glad this Ring-billed Gull’s rotund belly caught my eye when through my viewfinder I could see the gull preening while in flight which is unusual behavior in my experience. I’ve spent a lot of time photographing Ring-billed Gulls over the years and this is the first time I have ever seen or photographed this behavior in a gull species.<\/p>\n

Turkey Vultures are the bird species I most often see preening while in flight and it always surprises me when I see them preening in mid air because it seems like it would be rather difficult to maintain flight and preen at the same time.<\/p>\n

\"PreeningPreening Ring-billed Gull in flight – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/5000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ring-billed Gull was flying forward while its eyes were facing the opposite direction and I didn’t notice the flight of the bird slowing down or becoming erratic at all it just appeared to glide forward without flapping its wings.<\/p>\n

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull preening in flight – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/3200, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The time stamp on the first photo of the Ring-billed Gull preening in flight was 15:52:05.056 and the time stamp of the last photo of it preening was 15:52:07.003, which is 1.947 or almost two seconds that the gull spent preening while moving forward in mid air.<\/p>\n

When the gull stopped preening it flew down to the surface of the pond and took a drink of water then I lost track of it because there were about 30 other gulls in close proximity on the water.<\/p>\n

I’m certain that I could come up with some rather funny captions for the photos of this Ring-billed Gull preening in flight but I wanted to be truthful about what I saw and photographed with my captions, the gull does look kind of goofy though.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Birds keep it interesting.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Ring-billed Gull photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three frames later I was glad this Ring-billed Gull’s rotund belly caught my eye when through my viewfinder I could see the gull preening while in flight which is unusual behavior in my experience. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,410,709,26],"tags":[4226,4101,4052,4122,3539,521,4264,4019,4468,4018,6331,8018,373],"class_list":["post-50753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-ring-billed-gulls","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-behavior","tag-clouds","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-larus-delawarensis","tag-preening-2","tag-ring-billed-gull","tag-sky","tag-unusual-behavior","tag-urban","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t