Show your Bird Portraits

[HankMD]

Meadowlark

I was out checking Cherry Creek to see what kind of birds may have still been around. I kind of missed the first part of the migration this year, as the ducks moved through when it was still rather cold (and I've been just so sick of cold, as it's been quite cold here in Colorado since late September...long time). While hiking around one of the small wetland areas, I almost stepped on this little guy. Not sure what he was doing on the ground, or why he didn't move when I got close (extremely close). His fearlessness gave me a chance to back off, get a nice vantage point, and get some excellent shots.

He sang for me the entire time, too! Really love the meadowlark song, very musical.

(NOTE: No setup of any kind here...completely natural, by-chance setting.)

Male Meadowlark
Cherry Creek State Park
Colorado

Canon EOS 7D
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro 2

After some googling, I'd say this is the Western Meadowlark, which is more melodious than the eastern kind. Seems to spend most of its time on the ground; even the nest is just a shallow, ground-level bowl of grass, though a dome may be built over it. The male will defend its territory vigorously -- but this one seemed calm in the face of a human.

Beautifully captured!

 

[Kerry B]

Great shots jrista.

 

[jrista]

I for one would love to try "behavioral camo" sometimes: pretending to be part of the environment, appearing uninterested in the subject, slowly moving close, etc.

Or, instead of pretending...you could ACTUALLY become part of the environment!

Ghillie Suits FTW!

I am actually in the process of making one of these...I have an old super-cheap net and leaf camo suit that I'm tying frayed yarn strands into....greens, browns, tans. I'm also planning on tying in some of the dried grass straw from Cherry Creek and some of the other parks around that I photograph at. It's primarily to see if it helps me get some better shots of the Kingfishers, which are notoriously difficult birds to shoot...they get all uppity when I'm around, and will only fish when they actually see me leave. I figure, if I can sneak in like a literal bush, maybe they'll get down to business and start fishin in front of my lens!

 

[jrista]

Meadowlark

I was out checking Cherry Creek to see what kind of birds may have still been around. I kind of missed the first part of the migration this year, as the ducks moved through when it was still rather cold (and I've been just so sick of cold, as it's been quite cold here in Colorado since late September...long time). While hiking around one of the small wetland areas, I almost stepped on this little guy. Not sure what he was doing on the ground, or why he didn't move when I got close (extremely close). His fearlessness gave me a chance to back off, get a nice vantage point, and get some excellent shots.

He sang for me the entire time, too! Really love the meadowlark song, very musical.

(NOTE: No setup of any kind here...completely natural, by-chance setting.)

Male Meadowlark
Cherry Creek State Park
Colorado

Canon EOS 7D
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro 2

After some googling, I'd say this is the Western Meadowlark, which is more melodious than the eastern kind. Seems to spend most of its time on the ground; even the nest is just a shallow, ground-level bowl of grass, though a dome may be built over it. The male will defend its territory vigorously -- but this one seemed calm in the face of a human.

Beautifully captured!

Oh yes, definitely a western. We do get some eastern meadowlarks here, but the westerns definitely dominate. The eastern meadowlarks have a higher pitched and "thinner" song than the westerns, and it isn't quite as melodious.

 

[Eldar]

I for one would love to try "behavioral camo" sometimes: pretending to be part of the environment, appearing uninterested in the subject, slowly moving close, etc.

Or, instead of pretending...you could ACTUALLY become part of the environment!

Ghillie Suits FTW!

I am actually in the process of making one of these...I have an old super-cheap net and leaf camo suit that I'm tying frayed yarn strands into....greens, browns, tans. I'm also planning on tying in some of the dried grass straw from Cherry Creek and some of the other parks around that I photograph at. It's primarily to see if it helps me get some better shots of the Kingfishers, which are notoriously difficult birds to shoot...they get all uppity when I'm around, and will only fish when they actually see me leave. I figure, if I can sneak in like a literal bush, maybe they'll get down to business and start fishin in front of my lens!

If you get that suit, make sure you get someone to take a picture you can share with us

 

[jrista]

I for one would love to try "behavioral camo" sometimes: pretending to be part of the environment, appearing uninterested in the subject, slowly moving close, etc.

Or, instead of pretending...you could ACTUALLY become part of the environment!

Ghillie Suits FTW!

I am actually in the process of making one of these...I have an old super-cheap net and leaf camo suit that I'm tying frayed yarn strands into....greens, browns, tans. I'm also planning on tying in some of the dried grass straw from Cherry Creek and some of the other parks around that I photograph at. It's primarily to see if it helps me get some better shots of the Kingfishers, which are notoriously difficult birds to shoot...they get all uppity when I'm around, and will only fish when they actually see me leave. I figure, if I can sneak in like a literal bush, maybe they'll get down to business and start fishin in front of my lens!

If you get that suit, make sure you get someone to take a picture you can share with us

Indeed! For a really good ghillie suit, you usually have to make them. The simplest way is to just take some burlap, cut it up and sew it into a basic poncho and chaps. The big threads of the burlap make it easy to tie frayed yarn and/or shredded strips of fabric to. If my attempt to use my net suit doesn't work, I have some burlap that I was using as a backdrop in my yard to cover the slatted nature of my fence (my fence makes for a really crappy background in my bird photos). I have like four sheets of this camo burlap which I think will make an ideal base for a ghillie suit.

 

[jrista]

Blue-Winged Teal Headshot

Another headshot. This time of a blue-winged teal. Really just love the mottled golden feathers these beauties have. This shot came out a bit darker than the rest, but the angle of the light on it's head just brought out the iridescent feathers and it's eye so much better.

This is one of those shots that brings out the worst of the 7D. It's a moderately heavy crop, definitely not the heaviest by a long shot, but heavier than I generally prefer. It's sharp, but it's also noisy. That's especially evident in the background...I even used a 0.8 radius for sharpening in LR (which helps reduce the graininess of noise), and the OOF background is still too noisy. I wasn't exactly reach limited here (the bird was quite large in the frame overall, this is a heavier crop for the head), so a full-frame camera with a 1.4x TC would have done a lot better...more total light, bigger pixels, more DR...so less noise. Really can't wait to get my hands on a 5D III.

Blue-Winged Teal, Male
Cottonwood Creek Wetland
Colorado

Canon EOS 7D
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro 2

 

[Mr Bean]

Eastern Spinebill. Winter approaches. The Correas are in flower and the spinebills are back

 

[Eldar]

Nuthatch, walking down a thick branch.
1DX, 600mm f4L IS II
1/800s, f6.3, ISO1000

 

[AlanF]

Chaffinch's afternoon snack. 5DIII, 300mm f/2.8 II + 2xTC III, f/5.6 iso 640 1/1600. 100% crop.

 

[Eldar]

Same nuthatch, a little later in the day, when the light had improved.
1DX, 600mm f4L IS II
1/1000s, f6.3, ISO400

 

[AlanF]

Greenfinch, 5DIII 300mm f/2.8 + 2xTC @600mm f/5.6.

 

[Click]

Very nice shots Alan. Well done.

 

[AlanF]

Very nice shots Alan. Well done.

Thanks!

 

[Click]

Willet

Killdeer

Beautiful shots jrista. 8) I really like this first Killdeer shot. Well done Sir!

 

[steven kessel]

I haven't posted anything in a while so here's one that I took this afternoon. Female Wood Duck. Much less colorful than the male but I think subtly beautiful nevertheless.

Canon5Diii, 400 DO, ISO 500, aperture preferred setting, f5 @ 1/320

 

[jrista]

Great shots, everyone! Some really good work is showing up on here these days. Alan, love that last shot with the Greenfinch...the way his head is cocked is great!

Click, thanks! I like that first Killdeer shot, too. Hopefully I'll be able to get some better ones as spring rolls on...those were my first shorebird shots of the year, and killdeer...well, sometimes they kinda make you wanna kill a deer...just because you gotta kill something...with their antics.

 

[Maiaibing]

Took these colorful test shots with my EF 300mm IS L II:

 

[Radagast]

Juvenile Peregrine...
T4 Close-up Portrait by jammo s, on Flickr

 

[jrista]

Maiaibing, LOVE the color in those shots! So rich!

Radagast, phenomenal detail! Such a beautiful bird.