One -actually inconspicuous- bird you can't miss on the Balearic Islands: the stonechat, weighing just 12 grams. They are very common in Europe, including Germany, but in Majorca they are practically at every supermarket 😉.
Despite its tiny size, I have seen them very proud in April and May on Mallorca: even from the hunting Great Grey Shrike they had little respect, they also sat a few times only a meter in front of me and chased every smaller bird from its territory, quite tough I think.
In the course of the photo sessions I decided to dedicate a series to these small birds. It does not always have to be the spectacular species.
I already had black-throated pictures, but always only on the same typical German plants and habitats. On Majorca I had caught a favorable time to photograph these animals in completely different and very beautiful habitats, besides with great light. On the flower meadows growing in April practically on every field, as well as on the filigree plants near the salt lakes, which I could not determine exactly.
This year, for the first time, I had a 20 fps camera with me; this helped me to photograph the birds with a nice wing position every now and then. In the past, something like that was more of a lucky shot. However, you couldn't release the shutter only when the animal took off - that happens in a fraction of a second. So I often kept on pressing, hoping for an early takeoff. At some point, you knew the behavior and knew when they would sit longer and when there was a high probability of a takeoff in the next few seconds. This worked quite well, but already led to massive numbers of shots, after all in 20 seconds 400 pictures and that with X departures per hour. This already annoyed me in the later selection, but on the other hand you can convey the behavior of the animals better with it.
It was really fun to watch these busy little birds, which raise up to three broods a year. Now I wish you now a lot of fun looking at the pictures!
Many greetings,
Thomas
I hope you enjoyed the series and the last part of Birding Majorca 😃🖐
Many greetings,
Thomas