Show your Bird Portraits

[Northstar]

Seridipidy, I envy the relationship. All I have are these dumb ducks that apparantly are eating the weed on the pond. Round and round back and forth shaking their beaks rapidly in the water not caring about me at all, and this isn't a park. The other ducks high tail it.

Guess soon the Heron will be eating from your hand!

Jack

Nice photo. At least the weeds are free...I have to keep buying loaves of bread

I thought about trying to entice him to eat from my hand (I'd have to hold a fish, since herons won't eat bread). But the pointy beak, sharp claws and those "Terminator" red eyes made me abandon the idea ;D

lol...funny seridipidy! nice heron photos too!

 

[Click]

My heron friend waits for me every afternoon to go fishing with him. He is still afraid to get closer than about 8 feet. When I run out of bread, he flies over and lands on the concrete bridge wall about 8 feet from me and just stares at me, until I leave. Today he caught about 5 or 6 fish (2 were fairly good sized). One tiny fish jumped out of his beak and landed in the water and got away. Another bigger one flipped out of his beak, but wasn't close enough to the water and got recaptured rather quickly.
7D, 100-400L @160mm and 400mm, f/6.3

Very nice pictures Serendipidy, I like your shots. Cute story too . Enjoy the time that you spend with your heron friend, and bring us more photos.

 

[serendipidy]

Thanks guys

 

[temp726]

Here's a couple from New Mexico around where I live, and a condor I ran into while on a geology filming expedition in the Grand Canyon.

The first (western tanagers) was with the 60D and 70-200 f/2.8L II and the other two (osprey and Cali Condor) were with the 5D3 and 70-200 f/2.8L II

 

[serendipidy]

Here's a couple from New Mexico around where I live, and a condor I ran into while on a geology filming expedition in the Grand Canyon.

The first (western tanagers) was with the 60D and 70-200 f/2.8L II and the other two (osprey and Cali Condor) were with the 5D3 and 70-200 f/2.8L II

Nice BIF shots...I like the tanagers the most

 

[Don Haines]

Seridipidy, I envy the relationship. All I have are these dumb ducks that apparantly are eating the weed on the pond. Round and round back and forth shaking their beaks rapidly in the water not caring about me at all, and this isn't a park. The other ducks high tail it.

Guess soon the Heron will be eating from your hand!

Jack

Nice photo. At least the weeds are free...I have to keep buying loaves of bread

I thought about trying to entice him to eat from my hand (I'd have to hold a fish, since herons won't eat bread). But the pointy beak, sharp claws and those "Terminator" red eyes made me abandon the idea ;D

lol...funny seridipidy! nice heron photos too!

The herons at my place (Great Blue Heron) won't let me get closer than about 150-200 feet before flying off, and you have to very quiet and still to get that close... I sit motionless in the canoe and slowly drift near. I have been inspired by the "heron with fish" shots, so I wanted to try to get one.. not very graceful looking as it strikes, but it worked...

shot with a 60D and 400F5.6, HEAVILY!! cropped...

 

[Click]

The herons at my place (Great Blue Heron) won't let me get closer than about 150-200 feet before flying off, and you have to very quiet and still to get that close... I sit motionless in the canoe and slowly drift near. I have been inspired by the "heron with fish" shots, so I wanted to try to get one.. not very graceful looking as it strikes, but it worked...

shot with a 60D and 400F5.6, HEAVILY!! cropped...

Very nice job Don! 8)

 

[serendipidy]

Seridipidy, I envy the relationship. All I have are these dumb ducks that apparantly are eating the weed on the pond. Round and round back and forth shaking their beaks rapidly in the water not caring about me at all, and this isn't a park. The other ducks high tail it.

Guess soon the Heron will be eating from your hand!

Jack

Nice photo. At least the weeds are free...I have to keep buying loaves of bread

I thought about trying to entice him to eat from my hand (I'd have to hold a fish, since herons won't eat bread). But the pointy beak, sharp claws and those "Terminator" red eyes made me abandon the idea ;D

lol...funny seridipidy! nice heron photos too!

The herons at my place (Great Blue Heron) won't let me get closer than about 150-200 feet before flying off, and you have to very quiet and still to get that close... I sit motionless in the canoe and slowly drift near. I have been inspired by the "heron with fish" shots, so I wanted to try to get one.. not very graceful looking as it strikes, but it worked...

shot with a 60D and 400F5.6, HEAVILY!! cropped...

Don,
Great shots...requires a lot more skill to get captures like that at 200 feet instead of 8-10 feet, especially when the subject is not co-operating. I'm very lucky to have such a hungry and easily tempted heron. Nice action series.

 

[steven kessel]

Red Tailed Hawk. 5Diii, 70-200 F4, Iso 800, F6.3 @ 1/1000.

 

[serendipidy]

Red Tailed Hawk. 5Diii, 70-200 F4, Iso 800, F6.3 @ 1/1000.

Wow! What a gorgeous photo. Love the composition and the colors. Great pose. 8)

 

[serendipidy]

I was gonna take a day off from heron fishing, but my wife said my heron had been sitting on the concrete wall in front of my house for over an hour waiting for me and I should get out there and feed our heron. It's hard to refuse a "suggestion" like that from my wife, so I quickly defrosted some frozen bread and grabbed my 7D and 100-400L. It was 6PM and getting dark and I forgot my Better Beamer (wish I would have had it). The heron caught 2 large tilapia and 8 small minnow sized ones. The 2 big fish really put up a fight, flapping vigorously for several minutes, but they never got loose. After I used up all the bread, shortly thereafter, as usual, he flies and lands 6-8 feet from me on the concrete bridge wall and just stares at me. A little unnerving since he seems to get an inch closer every day.

 

[serendipidy]

The second big tilapia catch

 

[serendipidy]

And finally, the stare from about 8 feet

 

[Click]

I was gonna take a day off from heron fishing, but my wife said my heron had been sitting on the concrete wall in front of my house for over an hour waiting for me and I should get out there and feed our heron. It's hard to refuse a "suggestion" like that from my wife, so I quickly defrosted some frozen bread and grabbed my 7D and 100-400L. It was 6PM and getting dark and I forgot my Better Beamer (wish I would have had it). The heron caught 2 large tilapia and 8 small minnow sized ones. The 2 big fish really put up a fight, flapping vigorously for several minutes, but they never got loose. After I used up all the bread, shortly thereafter, as usual, he flies and lands 6-8 feet from me on the concrete bridge wall and just stares at me. A little unnerving since he seems to get an inch closer every day.

Nice close-up Senrendipidy 8) Getting closer every day.

 

[Jack Douglas]

Serindipidy, I'm a little confused. The bread you buy is for other birds, I take it, since you said the heron doesn't eat it. So it's a true friendship, assuming he doesn't get anything to eat from you??

Amazing how animals and humans bond.

Jack

 

[rpt]

Serindipidy, I'm a little confused. The bread you buy is for other birds, I take it, since you said the heron doesn't eat it. So it's a true friendship, assuming he doesn't get anything to eat from you??

Amazing how animals and humans bond.

Jack

I think he baits the fish with the bread too.

 

[rpt]

And finally, the stare from about 8 feet

Fantastic pictures!

 

[Terry Rogers]

Shot through a fence at the Edmonton Zoo

 

[stephan00]

Let's get this back to the duck-motif

At the local university there's a nice pond with huge signs asking people not to feed the ducks and swans, which of course means that on the weekends graddaddys, daddys and retirees are virtually fighting to get a spot to feed the nice birdies.

Which is fine by me, so I can just sit and wait. Here are some from last Saturday, all with 5DIII and one of the whites, a couple bare lens, the rest with the 2xIII, and I can say that it is a very fine lens indeed

 

[stephan00]

And three more, could be much better, I know, but I have taken a lot of worse photos 8)