Show your Bird Portraits

[ERHP]

A small portion of a covey of juvenile California Quail coming for a drink at a small seep.

R5 RF600 f/4L w/1.4X 1/1600 : f/8 : ISO 800

A Black-headed Grosbeak juvenile.

R5 RF600 f/4L w/1.4X 1/200 : f/6.3 : ISO 800

A juvenile Violet-green Swallow commencing its 'feed me' routine as the sun crested the distant ridge.

R5 RF600 f/4L w/1.4X 1/1000 : f/7.1 : ISO 800

 

[Click]

Great shots, ERHP.

 

[dpc]

Great horned owl in our neighbours yard. You'll have to excuse the messy backdrop and surroundings.

 

[Del Paso]

Great horned owl View attachment 205027 in our neighbours yard. You'll have to excuse the messy backdrop and surroundings.

Messy???? Where and what????

 

[dpc]

Messy???? Where and what????

Just the general tangle of branches. I shouldn't expect much more considering the subject.

 

[Del Paso]

Just the general tangle of branches. I shouldn't expect much more considering the subject.

I'd rather say the branches belong to this great picture. No reason to apologize!

 

[AlanF]

I'd rather say the branches belong to this great picture. No reason to apologize!

The green haze at the bottom left quarter is a bit messy and this is why dpc is apologising. It's usually annoying to have a greenery haze getting in the way of the subject. I would have been tempted to have cropped out the bottom half and just have had it as a true portrait, with the green leaves framing the bottom of the chest.

 

[ISv]

Great shots, ERHP.

As usually...

 

[Maximilian]

Ingólfshöfði, Iceland
R5 + RF100-500mm
http://www.FromCoastToMountains.is/

Just wonderful! Khudos!

 

[Maximilian]

Ever seen a heron panting? Or is a bone stuck in the throat?
It was about 35 °C when I made these pics in July.
The bird was standing there for several minutes, beak wide open.

 

[Del Paso]

The green haze at the bottom left quarter is a bit messy and this is why dpc is apologising. It's usually annoying to have a greenery haze getting in the way of the subject. I would have been tempted to have cropped out the bottom half and just have had it as a true portrait, with the green leaves framing the bottom of the chest.

That's just what I also liked about the picture!
De gustibus...

 

[Del Paso]

Two very easy mediocre shots (I'm not into "birding, my wife isn't patient at all, and dislikes photpgraphy ).
Alan: could it be that grey heron's flight distance has shortened?
I'm convinced it was much longer when I was young. Pure subjectivity?

 

[AlanF]

That's just what I also liked about the picture!
De gustibus...

Some peoples De gustibus is others Disgust.

 

[Del Paso]

Some peoples De gustibus is others Disgust.

This was hard!

 

[AlanF]

This was hard!

No, it was easy!

 

[josephandrews222]

Today's Northern Cardinal:


...is this bird 'molting' after a long, hot summer or did it suffer 'damage' from inches and inches of rain in a recent, quite destructive storm in our area of the midwest USA?

 

[Click]

Nice shots! I prefer the second picture with its beak not hidden by the leaf.

This Cardinal is in the process of molting.

 

[macrunning]

I know Herons are eating small (baby) birds but in this case it killed a juvenile House Sparrow in front of me. It happened suddenly and I lost time to pull out my camera from the backpack. Swallow it with all the feathers (no cleaning, no grill).
I'm not concerned about the population of the House Sparrow (and the endemic birds here don't have an overlapping areal with the Herons) but some much more rare introduced birds like the African Silver Bill and the Red Avadavat e.t.c. could be vulnerable.
After that a Yellow-faced Canary - I didn't know they could do this with their lower mandible: it's the same bird. Look at the disposition of the lower mandible on the first photo.

View attachment 204986 View attachment 204987 View attachment 204988 View attachment 204989 View attachment 204990

Nice set of photos ISv!

 

[macrunning]

Just recently I have observed some very aggressive behaviour by the Coots. This was late evening Coot-Gull) and so ISO 6400 and at quite a distance but you can still see what is going on. They are also pretty violent with one another and have quite the claws. The youngsters were none too happy.

Jack

Those things have lizard feet!

 

[macrunning]

Great horned owl View attachment 205027 in our neighbours yard. You'll have to excuse the messy backdrop and surroundings.

Nice shot. I really feel like I'm standing in front of him.