Chipping Sparrows Mating
I was in a friend’s yard in Ryegate, VT on May 20, 2023 when I was fortunate to photograph my fourth avian copulation this spring. A pair of Chipping Sparrows appeared to mate twice and almost a third time on a well-placed branch. I was at the right distance with the right lens, so the photos shown here are barely cropped — mostly just to align the images since they were shot handheld.
Here is their first mating. (You can pause and step through any slide show at your own pace if you wish.)
Four seconds later, the male was back for a second round.
Each of these sequences lasted about two seconds. It appeared the male made another try, but apparently the female had enough. Here is one quick photo that was taken six seconds after the last one in the second sequence above. You can tell that the female has not moved from her original position.
From about the same spot as these photos were taken, but two weeks earlier, I made this four-photo panorama. The mountains left to right are Lafayette, Lincoln, and Moosilauke.
Here are the other three avian copulations from Spring 2023: