Show your Bird Portraits

[HenryL]

Been a short while since I contributed...between clouds and rain and just being busy with life, I still managed to get out each week and grab a few additions for the thread. Been experimenting with DXO, C1, and Denoise lately as well.

Lovely early morning light


and the lights pretty sweet in the evening, too


Sometimes birds express frustration, too...I can relate to this guy. Seriously. Where's my R5?


And one gratuitous non-avian contribution if I may...but he did sneak up on me yesterday while I was photographing birds. Does that count? Made me laugh, he popped out of the grass, saw me standing there, and after a few seconds walked right back in as if he intended to all along.

 

[AlanF]

Fawnbreasted Brilliant Hummingbird.

 

[HenryL]

Not a glorious or very scenic location, but she found an outdoor table at the local feeding pond. I had been watching this character hunt for almost an hour, diving several times but coming up empty. As (bad) luck would have it, after I gave up and reached my car, she scored! Brat...

 

[HenryL]

Fawnbreasted Brilliant Hummingbird.
View attachment 190685

Nice one, Alan! I've never even come close to getting a shot like that. Like photographing mosquitoes they're so tiny!

 

[Click]

Very nice series, HenryL.

 

[Click]

Fawnbreasted Brilliant Hummingbird.

Beautiful shot. Well done, Alan.

 

[dpc]

 

[AlanF]

Just came across this old shot I took of a Little Egret catching a Common Darter dragonfly, taken on a 5DIII and 300mm f/2.8 II + 2xTC, a tiny crop which I have now enlarged 2x using Topaz Gigapixel. That lens with the 2xTC is phenomenally sharp, and I had some very satisfying shots with it on the 5DIII. A gem of a lens, which could be reworked as a lighter weight RF version to go with a high resolution sensor.

 

[Click]

Very nice shot, Alan.

 

[bhf3737]

A cliff swallow and a cedar waxwing angry bird, yesterday before the storm.
EOS-R + Sigma 60-600 + Canon 1.4TC III. This combo is heavy but has AF and up to 840mm reach.

 

[Click]

Nice shots, bhf3737. I especially like the first picture.

 

[Maximilian]

Just came across this old shot I took of a Little Egret catching a Common Darter dragonfly, taken on a 5DIII and 300mm f/2.8 II + 2xTC, a tiny crop which I have now enlarged 2x using Topaz Gigapixel. That lens with the 2xTC is phenomenally sharp, and I had some very satisfying shots with it on the 5DIII. A gem of a lens, which could be reworked as a lighter weight RF version to go with a high resolution sensor.

I like that shot, although I feel sorry for that darter.
Really nice sharpness from that outdated low pixel camera. I will keep mine sime time longer

By the way:
That shot reminds me of a situation that took place in the "Vogelpark Walsrode" (famous German bird zoo):
I was watching a wattled crane that was frozen like a statue when a really beautiful big southern hawker flew by.
Blazingly fast, faster than I've ever expected from that crane it snapped at that hawker and cought it with one move.
I was deeply imressed. And I've never seen any bird moving that fast again.

 

[Jack Douglas]

A shot from last year, Costa Rica.

Jack

 

[AlanF]

A Jay just visited the back garden. They are usually very skittish but I caught him. I don't like them as they eat fledglings but they are much prettier than other corvids.

 

[Click]

Jack and Alan,

Nice pictures, guys.

 

[Jack Douglas]

A Jay just visited the back garden. They are usually very skittish but I caught him. I don't like them as they eat fledglings but they are much prettier than other corvids.

View attachment 190727

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Jack

 

[HenryL]

Great photo, and that's a beauty of a bird - habit's notwithstanding. My bird ID skills are sorely lacking, is that a Eurasian Jay?

 

[AlanF]

Great photo, and that's a beauty of a bird - habit's notwithstanding. My bird ID skills are sorely lacking, is that a Eurasian Jay?

Spot on!

 

[Maximilian]

... is that a Eurasian Jay?

I looked it up yet again.
Ornithologists divide the Eurasian/European Jay (garrulus glandarius) up into 11 (German Wiki) or 9 (English Wiki) subspecies.
Makes me dizzy

Not to mention all the other Eurasian groups...

 

[ISv]

I looked it up yet again.
Ornithologists divide the Eurasian/European Jay (garrulus glandarius) up into 11 (German Wiki) or 9 (English Wiki) subspecies.
Makes me dizzy

Not to mention all the other Eurasian groups...

Don't pay attention to the subspecies for most of the species (some species are exception!) - you have to have the bird in hand and even better - take DNA sample and proceed it in well equipped lab (but even then you could get in trouble because the gene fluctuations/mixing and whatever else).
First two - juvenile White-Rumped Shama, next two Red Crested Cardinal (has nothing to do with the Cardinals!) and the last two are that baby White Tern that I posted before - now ~two weeks grown! The Wite Tern photos in very windy conditions and badly overcast sky.