I love our native birds. I spend a lot of time in the underbrush and thickets trying to get pictures of birds in the wild. Here are a few I've managed to capture: Yellow Warbler Western Kingbird A black-chinned hummingbird keeping a close eye on a Rufous (Rufous Hummingbirds are notorious for being aggressive). For example, a Rufous being mean to a female black-chinned: A Blue Grosbeak. They're so colorful they almost look fake. Western Bluebird male and female The most elusive and frustrating little devil I ever tried to capture. A brown creeper. Tiny and fast. One of my favorites. American Goldfinch Red-tailed Hawk And finally my nemesis and the serial killer known as the bird feeder slayer, The Sharp-shinned hawk. This bird is the bane of my backyard bird-feeder experience. He keeps murdering all my birds. Damn bird. I'm sure he's thinking, "soon...." Here he is getting ready to eat one of my babies! Soon....... If you have any great or even average photos, please share. If you have a photo of a bird and you don't know what it is, post it here and I'll help you with the identification. edit: I almost forgot this little guy: It's a Chipping Sparrow grabbing a snack.
I'm very impressed by your knowledge of birds. Very cool! You should invest in a better camera. I'm not knocking your pics, considering what you're working with, they came out very well. Those kingbirds are amazing. They are like little feathery ninjas, they are capable of some outright amazing acrobatics.
Regrettably, the problem is the photographer not the camera. I have a Canon EOS Rebel T-3. I suck at photography. I bought it so I could identify birds I don't recognize in the field. I have a Sibley's Field Guide but most of these birds are so elusive they disappear before I can look them up in the guide. If I snap a picture I can spend some leisure time at home matching what I shot with the illustrations in the Field Guide. Which is preferable to squatting on the ground with my guide and fighting off stinging ants and other creepy-crawlies. I need to take a photography course (obviously).
Here is a banded drake mallard A few sprig a spoon and a goose in the bottom of the pile Another days limit.
My phone will not allow me to take good bird shots, unfortunately.. Which sucks, because recently a family of scrub jays has been caching food in my backyard, watching them play is hilarious.
Are you sure you're not confusing this dove with Eurasian Collared Doves? They look pretty similar. White-winged doves have a limited range in the U.S. Unless you're in Texas. Eurasian Collared Doves. An introduced species:
Western Tanager at a very looooong distance. I tried getting close but he kept flying away from me. Sharp-shinned Hawk eating one of my babies. Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon sub-species) White-crowned Sparrow (one of my favorites)
dude I LOVE THIS. I love watching all the hummingbirds here in socal but I'm no good at taking pictures like you
lol whenever i see hummingbirds, i imagine them as the little tweekers of the animal kingdom, zipping from flower to flower bein all NECTAR NECTAR METH NECTAR METH NECTAR METH NECTAR NECETAR KILL KILL NECTAR METH NECTAR
I only have one photo of a bald eagle. It's not that good. I was getting ready to leave a birding spot and I just had a feeling that made me look up and this is what I saw: It was flying into the sun and I only had one chance to take a pic. I've been back to that spot time and time again to try and get a better picture but to no avail. I felt blessed.
Hi CS and all, I'm the same way when I see a rarer bird, I snap as many shots as I can get just to be able to check my field guide at home. I live in a fairly rural area so there are an abundance without having to travel too far thankfully, or crawl through or under brush, at least not too much anymore ;-). Being in the NE we don't get that many different types of Hummingbirds in our area, but I do have the beautiful Ruby Throats that grace my flowers and feeders like clockwork every year =), but once the cold sets in they're gone for the winter until next May, but what a great Spring welcome! I'd like to continue seeing your local birds, it's cool to compare them to ours. And trust me, when you see those fabulous shots of birds, that's because they take about a thousand shots to get one great one, so keep at it! Once I get on my own computer where all my pics are stored I'll post a couple too. I'm a bird lover watcher for a long time, it's always fun to share with like minded peeps Thanks for starting this!
One of my faves from around here, the Great Blue Heron. It always amazes me how stealthy they are, they can be standing in the cattails around my pond and lift off without a sound, and scare the crap out of me .
I have one lousy pic of a Blue Heron. They're skittish around here so I can never get a good shot. I was taking some pictures of our neighborhood Oregon Juncos and White-crowned sparrows when I noticed another little guy running around. Another sub-species of the Dark-eyed Junco. This one is called a Gray-headed or Red-backed Junco Downy Woodpecker. A turkey vulture that kept a close eye on me. Gave me the creeps. A male Spotted Towhee. He would not come out of the shade. And the last for today. Not a very pretty bird but still pretty cool. A black-headed grosbeak.