クロジ / Grey Bunting

An acquaintance who recently added me as a bird friend gave me information on Grey Bunting, so I immediately went looking for them. Grey Buntings like dimly lit forest floors and thickets, so as I strolled through what appeared to be such an area, I heard a call. It was a thicket filled with thin branches, and it was very difficult to get a good picture of it. It was a good thing I brought a tripod instead of a monopod.

As I observed them, they seemed to go up into the forest canopy, stay for a while, and then come back down. They seemed to go back and forth in the same place, so I ambushed them when they were all gone.

This is a Grey Bunting male coming down from the forest. He was holding a hard black nut in his mouth. Is this what grows on the tree?

I don’t know if he can swallow it! In fact, it was so big that he couldn’t actually had a hard time swallowing it all the way down. A frontal view with a bit of a pause.

For some reason, only males appeared on this day, and this was the only shot in which the female was properly captured.

The portraits are covered with quacks, but as per ecology, I think this is a good thing.