Bird Photography

[inkista]

Originally Posted by OjaiAnna

May I asked what or who is the Anna that is freeloading and buzzing you at the zoo? ...

The hummingbird in the shot was the freeloading Anna's that buzzed me. Little guy swooped around, and then turned and hovered in front of me for a few seconds before zipping off on his merry way. If he hadn't stopped to hover, I'd've never gotten the shot.

The common name for Calypte anna is "Anna's Hummingbird". "Freeloader" is a now-discouraged shorthand that the San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park keepers used to use for any of the local wildlife that took advantage of the copious free food, shade, and water that was in the exhibits. I don't work there, so I still use the term--affectionately, I hasten to add. I actually find the freeloaders more interesting than the exhibit animals. Every bird in this tree is a freeloader (the collection birds are pinioned so they can't get up there):



Mostly cattle egrets, snowy egrets, and greater egrets, and a few black-crowned night herons. An occasional greater blue heron will show up. I do some of my best wild bird photography at the WAP:

[gmom]

Originally Posted by inkista

The hummingbird in the shot was the freeloading Anna's that buzzed me. Little guy swooped around, and then turned and hovered in front of me for a few seconds before zipping off on his merry way. If he hadn't stopped to hover, I'd've never gotten the shot.

The common name for Calypte anna is "Anna's Hummingbird". "Freeloader" is a now-discouraged shorthand that the San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park keepers used to use for any of the local wildlife that took advantage of the copious free food, shade, and water that was in the exhibits. I don't work there, so I still use the term--affectionately, I hasten to add. I actually find the freeloaders more interesting than the exhibit animals. Every bird in this tree is a freeloader (the collection birds are pinioned so they can't get up there):



Mostly cattle egrets, snowy egrets, and greater egrets, and a few black-crowned night herons. An occasional greater blue heron will show up. I do some of my best wild bird photography at the WAP:

You're lucky to have such a great zoo venue. The youngest granddaughter and I have made annual zoo expeditions for the last four years -- started in Tulsa, OK, then Ft. Worth, St. Louis and San Antonio. San Diego is definitely on our list. At my age, trekking into the "wild" isn't likely, but zoos are perfect, and I've always loved them, anyway. Here's a white pelican from this summer in San Antonio.

[samhail]

A guy in my photography club told me of a trick he does around his house to attract birds. He hollows out one side of a tree branch (the opposite of the side he wants to shoot) and puts peanut butter in the hollowed out parts. Birds then come and sit there all long and eat the peanut butter. He has gotten some fantastic shots. I haven't tried it yet but I will next spring.

[merlinator]

For those of you that like raptors in flight photos, the thing to remember is that just before raptors take off they almost always mute (a falconry term for emptying their bowels).
And there is no such thing as a seagull, just gulls.

[Winstons]

Like you say merlinator..they almost always mute. This fellow was at the extreme range of my lens and I didn't really notice the 'muting' until I cropped the shots later.





Please visit my Flickr photostream Flickr: Howie44's Photostream

[Ariana Murphy]

I just found this thread, and was really happy. I love shooting birds with my Nikon D60. I have many feeders set up in my yard, including one I can see from my kitchen window. I offer a variety of food, and attract many species, including chickadees, blue jays, cardinals, juncos, nuthatches, woodpeckers and finches.
I am such a rookie with my DSLR, I am still just lucky to get a good shot, but I got some nice ones also with my p-and-s Fuji 1000sd.

Here's a couple of my most recent shots:

Dark-eyed junco:



Blue Jay:



Goldfinch in Winter Plumage

[Wulfy]

Nice shots. I'm especially loving that Blue Jay shot. I've taken some of robins and what I think is a thrush recently with my new bridge camera... the four best of which can be seen at my Artbreak (in signature).

[Ariana Murphy]

Thank you, Wulfy!

I keep a record of new species that I find, and was happy to add two new ones this week - a Cooper's Hawk and an American Tree Sparrow.

You can see more of my bird pics at my Flickr site.

Birds - a set on Flickr

Here's one of my best:

[RichardTaylor]

Nice series, especially using a P&S camera, Ariana.

Here is a few from within our garden.
(1) One of my early ones.
The rainbow lorikeets love the lili pilli berries


Canon 350D (Rebel XT) with 70-300 IS zoom and EX580 flash.
ISO 200, 1/200 @ F5.6 ,F=250mm Hand held - Fill in flash with no exposure compensation.

(2) About a year latter - when the Liquid Amber trees were seeding.

Camera: Canon EOS 40D + Canon 100-400 F4.5-F5.6 IS L lens
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/9
Focal Length: 400 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Hand held.

(3) This was taken around the same time (minutes) in the same tree. The galahs love the seeds as well.


(4) Back in the same tree as pic #1 but two years latter.
Taken from our back door in the pouring rain.


Camera: Canon EOS 40D + Canon 100-400 F4.5-F5.6 IS L lens
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 400 mm
ISO Speed: 3200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off
Hand held IS (VR, VC) on.

Thanks for looking.
Richard

Edit:
Nowdays, If i am specifically shooting birds, I almost always shoot with a Canon 40D + Canon 100-400 F4.5-F5.6 IS L lens.
If possible I use a mono pod but not for birds in flight.
If lighting is good, and the birds are a fair way off, I will use the lowest possible ISO to give me a shutter speed of at lest 1/500 and an aperure of around F8 and shutter priority .

If lighting is poor, or I want minimal DOF, I will be shooting aperture priority usually with the lens wide open. I am not afraid to bump the ISO up to 1600 + in low light.

Focus is set up for centre focus point only and focus tracking is on.
I will be shooting RAW and in high speed continuous mode.

[Ariana Murphy]

Thanks, Richard! Wow, you have some great shots of parrots there!
I should clarify, though, that only some of the photos in my Birds set on Flickr were taken with my Fuji p-and-s. The others were taken with my Nikon D60. The goldfinches in winter plumage are my most recent. Although I haven't downloaded today's yet ....