Crested Caracara on a Saguaro — A Family Reunion

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I’m back after a week off. After 3500+ posts, nearly all of them consecutive, I felt a need to do something else for a few days. But that’s behind me, it will be a while before the next hiatus.

Today, two images of a Crested Caracara perching on a Saguaro Cactus.

This Caracara is one of a pair that have nested in the arms of the same Saguaro Cactus for the past four years. The pair is remarkable in that the nest is within a few meters of a fairly heavily traveled highway. The nest site has become well-known to birders and photographers and not just from the Tucson area. The nest has a national, perhaps international, reputation.

I’ve made images of the adult pair and their offspring every year and I did so again this year. That said, I’m becoming more than a bit uncomfortable going there. At times more than a dozen photographers and birders will line up, shoulder to shoulder, to view the Caracaras and their nest. Photographing the birds no longer feels like nature photography to me, but more like photographing at a zoo.

My growing reluctance to photograph these birds may be a bit irrational because the Caracaras don’t seem to mind the admirers. It’s a bit weird because these birds are known to be fairly secretive, especially when it comes to nesting. Whatever may be the reason, this pair plainly has become inured to the presence of humans standing just a handful of meters away from them as they raise their offspring.

However, although the birds may not mind people standing relatively close by, that is not license for their human “friends” to do stupid things. And I’ve seen people do some pretty stupid things at this nest site, including climbing over or shimmying under the barbed wire fence that separates the nest from observers and walking up to the nest to take closeups. So, if any of my readers are familiar with this nest, please, observe some etiquette when you’re there and remind others to do so as well.

I made several nice images of the pair raising their family and will post those images in days to come.

Images made with a Canon R5, Canon EF 400mm f4 DO II lens+Canon EF 1.4x telextender, supported by monopod, M setting (auto ISO), ISO 1250 (first image), 640 (second image), f5.6 @ !/3200.

birding birds crested-caracara nature photography wildlife