About the length of this thread. It's possible for someone just visiting the thread to be overwhelmed by it's length - I think of myself years ago, when I was completely new here and didn't know how to function efficiently.
Now with "notify" clicked at the bottom of the thread my email tells me new postings are there and I have a quick peak; meaning I'm quite unaware of the thread length and it doesn't present as an issue. I have both of the threads clicked for notify so it's not a big deal but I'd personally prefer just being directed to one.
However, if I only cared about flight shots I guess I'd get tired of also being exposed to portraits. Somehow I can't picture too many bird lovers not wanting to see any/all bird photos; thus my suggestion of merging. Technically, I'm not sure if all of my shots even qualify as "portraits". If it's a bird I just post it ... and I even dropped in a muskrat when the conversation went slightly off topic. It's whatever everyone is in favour of that's fine with me.
BTW here is another view of a bird previously posted. I thought it was "cute". He was like a little kid in the bathtub making bubbles with his face in the water.
Jack