Show your Bird Portraits

[AlanF]

I haven't been out much this summer, but now that fall migration is peaking, I've been out a lot lately. Sunday morning, I had a shocking, surprise sighting! An Azure Tit (yellow-breasted) showed itself with a group of 3 Black-capped Chickadees!!! I'm in Wisconsin, which we clearly have no tits native here. This little guy is from the mountains of Tajikistan. Either it is an escapee from illegal bird trade or possibly from someone else, though their not really pet birds and uncommon, even in the wild. At any rate, a beautiful bird and one I surely did not expect while chasing warblers in southeast Milwaukee County! 7D mkll / EF 600 F4 ll / 1.4x lll

Jeremy

View attachment 200185 View attachment 200186 View attachment 200187 View attachment 200188

A lovely Tit. Looks like a relative of our Blue Tit. EDit: Just checked in Wikipedia "This is the eastern counterpart of the common Eurasian blue tit. It will hybridise with that species, but the offspring usually show a blue crown, rather than the white of azure tit."

 

[usern4cr]

At home, we've been enjoying hummingbirds at our feeder. I noticed one perching in our trees and thought I might as well see if I can get a decent photo of it. So I got out the R5 and the RF 800 with RF 1.4x TC (that I just leave on it). I got some crops of one in the same spot in the early morning sun, about 11 to 12 meters away. Here's the first half of those that were decent enough to keep. PL4 with 0.7 lens sharpening and deep prime output. There's a lot of "very similar" poses, but after culling down 800+ photos to just 19, I didn't feel like culling them down any further.

Cheers.

 

[Francois H]

 

[Francois H]

 

[maulanawale]

Goldcrest

• maulanawale
• Sep 14, 2021

Kingfisher

• maulanawale
• Sep 14, 2021

Kestrel

• maulanawale
• Sep 14, 2021

First time I share photos here so hope you like them.

I'm still very much a beginner. Only got into birds/wildlife during lockdown 1.0 here in the UK and so far I've been limited to the local parks in Bristol.
Can't really complain though since we do have a good number of different species from Kingfishers to buzzards, kestrels, peregrines and sparrowhaks (plus all your usual tits and songbirds)

 

[EricN]

Goldcrest

• maulanawale
• Sep 14, 2021

Kingfisher

• maulanawale
• Sep 14, 2021

Kestrel

• maulanawale
• Sep 14, 2021

First time I share photos here so hope you like them.

I'm still very much a beginner. Only got into birds/wildlife during lockdown 1.0 here in the UK and so far I've been limited to the local parks in Bristol.
Can't really complain though since we do have a good number of different species from Kingfishers to buzzards, kestrels, peregrines and sparrowhaks (plus all your usual tits and songbirds)

I wouldn't guess you were a beginner! What is the first bird?

 

[maulanawale]

I wouldn't guess you were a beginner! What is the first bird?

Thanks Eric!

Sorry didn't know the file name would be visible, I have renamed them as the bird species now
First one is a goldcrest. UK's smallest bird together with its more exotic brother the firecrest
That was actually the first time I saw and shot one, so got very very lucky when it landed right in front of me to catch some lunch.

I have to say that despite being a beginner, I have spent hours and hours walking around and scouting my local patch and making notes on where and when to find what, so in terms of "flight hours" I probably have twice the amount a sensible person would at this stage

 

[Click]

At home, we've been enjoying hummingbirds at our feeder. I noticed one perching in our trees and thought I might as well see if I can get a decent photo of it. So I got out the R5 and the RF 800 with RF 1.4x TC (that I just leave on it). I got some crops of one in the same spot in the early morning sun, about 11 to 12 meters away. Here's the first half of those that were decent enough to keep. PL4 with 0.7 lens sharpening and deep prime output. There's a lot of "very similar" poses, but after culling down 800+ photos to just 19, I didn't feel like culling them down any further.

Nice series, usern4cr.

 

[Click]

Very nice timing. I really like yours shots. Well done, Francois H.

 

[Click]

First time I share photos here so hope you like them.

I'm still very much a beginner. Only got into birds/wildlife during lockdown 1.0 here in the UK and so far I've been limited to the local parks in Bristol.
Can't really complain though since we do have a good number of different species from Kingfishers to buzzards, kestrels, peregrines and sparrowhaks (plus all your usual tits and songbirds)

Beautiful pictures. I especially like the Kingfisher. Keep posting your bird pictures.

 

[maulanawale]

Beautiful pictures. I especially like the Kingfisher. Keep posting your bird pictures.

THanks! Will do
We have a breeding pair of kingfishers around so they're very easy to spot all year round and then the juvs during summer.

 

[dpc]

Mourning dove sitting for a portrait

Canon R + adapter + Sigma 150-600mm C

 

[Click]

Nice shot, dpc.

 

[IslanderMV]

Juvenile Red Knot and a Little Blue Heron Preening. (lifetime bird for me)

 

[AlanF]

Just one for the humour (that's for @Jack Douglas). My sunflower hearts feeder, the Canadian Squirrel Buster, is meant to be proof against squirrels and larger birds as their weight pulls the cage down to cover the feeding apertures. This Great Spotted Woodpecker (Jack loves them) is just light enough. She normally is very skittish but is letting me get closer.

 

[Click]

Nice pictures, Islander.

 

[Click]

Cool gif, Alan.

 

[Click]

Lesser Yellowlegs

 

[AlanF]

At home, we've been enjoying hummingbirds at our feeder. I noticed one perching in our trees and thought I might as well see if I can get a decent photo of it. So I got out the R5 and the RF 800 with RF 1.4x TC (that I just leave on it). I got some crops of one in the same spot in the early morning sun, about 11 to 12 meters away. Here's the first half of those that were decent enough to keep. PL4 with 0.7 lens sharpening and deep prime output. There's a lot of "very similar" poses, but after culling down 800+ photos to just 19, I didn't feel like culling them down any further.



Cheers.

The upside of 20 fps is that sometimes you can get just the right shot in an action setting and it's great for making these little gifs. The downside is that you can get just too many shots to plough through. I went out for just a few seconds for the woodpecker and got 120 images. I don't know what I'll do if I am ever able to go on a safari or birding holiday. Self restraint and using ES only when necessary I suppose.

 

[usern4cr]

The upside of 20 fps is that sometimes you can get just the right shot in an action setting and it's great for making these little gifs. The downside is that you can get just too many shots to plough through. I went out for just a few seconds for the woodpecker and got 120 images. I don't know what I'll do if I am ever able to go on a safari or birding holiday. Self restraint and using ES only when necessary I suppose.

I've found that for for taking bursts of photos, I've given up on 20 fps because 1) I get too many photos afterwards (in the thousands) to wade through in post and the hobby isn't fun for me then, 2) I don't like losing 2 stops of DR when there are many times when I desperately need to pull detail out of shadows, 3) if I want to have a crazy high fps and can tolerate the loss of 2 stops then I'd rather just take an 8K raw video at 30fps which I can easily replay and focus on any snippets to pull a (almost FF) raw photo from, and 4) if I just want short bursts of FF raw photos I'll use the slowest fps setting so that the number I get in post is 2 to 3x less than 20fps and then it's not as daunting to wade through and I still get the max DR for pulling shadow detail. So EFCS in slowest FPS continuous mode is my default and I press & release the shutter quickly for single photos.

It sure would be nice if Canon would allow the user to set the fps they want for the various shutter modes.