Show your Bird Portraits

AlanF said:
It's great when you can get close enough to capture a bird at high resolution or in exciting action or pose. But, for some of the time you use your camera to take a record of what you have seen and to identify it. On many occasions, I have taken shots of a bird so far away or against the light that I could not identify it. Here are some shots that aren't great photos but they are good enough to out in an album and tell me what I have seen. Most of the these images taken yesterday were of small dots in the distance (on 7DII + 100-400mm II) of only about 400x400 pixels. The 7DII + 100-400 II is great for this, as are the 150-600s. The yellow humming bird was very exciting for me as I couldn't make out what it was until I took the photo and it is the first time I have seen a hummingbird.
The yellow is a rather nice shot ! Congrats. I do know the feeling of shooting a bird and being surprised at the species and quality of the shot. Always a great feeling.
 
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Alan F, I regard the camera as a tool for learning about (birds, wildflowers, mushrooms, insects, ....) as well as a tool for making esthetically pleasing images. I keep shots of birds that demonstrate particular identifying features or characteristic behavior, whether or not the images are technically or esthetically good. If I get a better shot, I toss the older lousy shots. Nowadays you can keep a few abbreviated field atlases on a phone, but if you need to go into further detail, it is wonderful to take the image home and identify at leisure. Wildflowers - photo not only the flower, but the leaf pattern and the entire plant in its habitat. And so on. There's a lot to be said for learning about organisms and showing people the wonderful organisms they might miss otherwise. There's a large variety of habitats in my region and state (Missouri, edge of Ozarks), plenty to catalog.
 
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NancyP said:
Alan F, I regard the camera as a tool for learning about (birds, wildflowers, mushrooms, insects, ....) as well as a tool for making esthetically pleasing images. I keep shots of birds that demonstrate particular identifying features or characteristic behavior, whether or not the images are technically or esthetically good. If I get a better shot, I toss the older lousy shots. Nowadays you can keep a few abbreviated field atlases on a phone, but if you need to go into further detail, it is wonderful to take the image home and identify at leisure. Wildflowers - photo not only the flower, but the leaf pattern and the entire plant in its habitat. And so on. There's a lot to be said for learning about organisms and showing people the wonderful organisms they might miss otherwise. There's a large variety of habitats in my region and state (Missouri, edge of Ozarks), plenty to catalog.

Nancy
I got into bird photography for the very reason to identify birds. It was only when I was persuaded to post on a birding website that I became interested in producing high quality photos with decent compositio. The new 100-400mm II is now leading me into insects and flowers because of its close focussing capabilities. I know point and shoots are good for close ups and a camera phone is fine for flowers, but you can photo butterflies etc from a metre away without disturbing them with the new lens.
 
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AlanF said:
The hummingbird is particularly fine.

Thanks, AlanF!

Click said:
hhkd said:
I've been browsing this site for a while now, figured I'd finally take the plunge and post something.
Both of these were taken with a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM mounted on a 60D. Full EXIF is on Flickr.


Great shots. Very nice first post. Welcome to CR.

Thanks, Click!

Click said:
Double-crested Cormorant

EOS 1DX
Canon 500 mm f4L IS II
1/250
f/4

That's an amazing shot!
 
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Fantastic images from everyone. I drilled a 1 1/2 " hole on an angle on the tree stump in my hard and filled it with a perfectly sized suet log. You drill the hole on an angle and deep so the bird can't hide on back side of tree and reach around with its neck to extract the suet.
 

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