Monday, July 23, 2007

Killdeer - Broken-Wing Display

This is one of the most dramatic broken-wing displays I have seen exhibited by a Killdeer.

Click on the image to the right to see a HD QuickTime Video in a 720p format.

This video (and others) are hosted on my blip.tv space where you can see it also in a Flash format.

I was riding my bike in an industrial area on the outskirts of Boise when a family of Killdeer, including a few chicks ran out in the road. There was grass nearby and I tried to herd them that towards it to prevent the chicks from getting run over by trucks and cars passing by. I had my HDV camcorder available so I captured a little hand held footage of one of the adults displaying the "broken-wing" behavior and a chick running on the road. The chicks were eventually led to the grass where they were quite well hidden and safer unless they run out into the road again.

Birdwatching.com has a good description of Killdeer behavior and the ability of the chicks to start running as soon as their feathers dry after hatching.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Arrived here via the NaBloPoMo Randomizer.

That is one of the best killdeer broken wing displays I've ever seen! Amazing. We have killdeers nesting on our property every year, and I've seen them dance around quite a bit whenever I happen to walk near where they nest.

Gary O. Grimm said...

Thank you Robin. Killdeers are such beautiful birds. We are lucky to see and hear them often.

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