A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Hobbies, Crafts and Creativity The Bird Lovers Forum Bird Pictures and Photography.

Sheri wanted a new thread for bird pictures and I think it is a good idea. Each bird forum I am on has one and they really are a great help. Not only do they show you a wide variety of birds and bird behavior, they are also a good place to learn how to improve your photography. Here are some MORE pictures I took today of odd behavior among a male and female house Sparrow.

Introducing a NEW Event at the Beijing Olympics......Synchronized Posing...

That is so funny. Were they looking at you?

No, they didn't even know I was there. They were 20 feet to my left in one of my Mimosa trees.

Here, for Dodge, AGAIN, is a nice Male Cardinal singing his Springtime call about 15 feet from my front porch chair.

Tweet, Chirp, Chirp, Woof, Meow Neigh, Moo, Beep, Honk, Squeal, OMG! Crash *sirens*

Thanks Thorn,

He is so gorgous.. Might print that one too.
I love the reddy teddy.. i do have a fake Red cardinal in my house and if you squeeze it, it sings the song of the cardinal.

Gee i am gettin know by a cardinal.
Now explain to me how your plannin on putting the birds in . For Bestofour.

One thing to remember when photographing birds is to never assume that what you think is a bird that is TOO common to photograph will be seen by your viewers as being so.. Always try to get good and unusual shots of even the most common birds. I had a lady in the Colorado rockies going crazy over a picture of a male Cardinal I took. She is my age and has lived in Colorado all her life and had NEVER seen a Cardinal or even a photograph of one. She stated how incredible they were and how they looked just like the paintings of them you see on Christmas postcards. My friends in England wonder why on earth I would want to see one of their Robins or Blackbirds. The answer is simple. European Birds, no matter how similar to U.S. or Canadian birds are very different The British Robins are much smaller than our Robins and look more like one of our bluebirds. British Blackbirds are the size and shape of OUR Robins but are solid black with a red eyering. Their Woodpeckers are VERY similar to our Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. Sure, always try to go for the less common or more unusual birds but NEVER neglect the MOST common. As an example, here is a picture I took at my feeders this morning.

European Starling

HOw sweet......Loved the story also.
Yep us cardinal lovers must stick together, like birds in the feather.. What time was you up to take that? Mine come in the am and pm.

b

I took that picture around noon yesterday.

Ok.........
Now I remember last year, you and your wife out there in the yard filling feeders.

Is your yard over run with squirrels and rabbits from the feeders?
My sister in town is .. The neighbor has a empty shed where the bunnys live I think.. Even possums and skunks there.

tHORN

Thorn
I took your advice.. This happen this afternoon.

Crazy huh?

great pictures guys.

Quoth the Thorny, "Like the pic"

Continuing with the theme of common birds in unusual circumstances, Here are some I took today I call, "Oh! How ordinary."


Saint Robin of the flowers



Hmmm, Was ist Dieses?



Bedraggled

How so we had the blossoms now ..Swell .. Now the next 2 look grumpy.....cool......Is this all in your back yard/
Very interesting.
Thanks for sharing.

b

Very true....my dad was just saying the other day how fat robins are over here....that when we first moved here he couldn't get over the size of the robins, that they were huge.

I like all of these pictures.

I guess the robins in the US are super sizing their food too.

I told dad that we just had too many fast food places here in the US...the birds were eating out of the dumpsters or something.

These pictures were taken in my front yard, Dodge. The white flowers around the Robin are Bradford Pear blossoms. They are almost gone, now. The pink flowers in the background are a flowering crab apple, I believe. We also have a Magnolia and a Mulberry tree near the crabapple.

I go to a lot of live feeder cams in the U.K. late at night so I am fairly familiar with British birds. My daughter is going to Scotland the 17th of this month to visit her fiance and his family, and he will be coming to stay with us around the middle of May for a couple of weeks. His name is Paul Watters and he is a sweetheart and VERY Scottish.

Thorny I took these pictures last night right before a storm was brewing But Fortunately it passed this area,,

there were sooooo many birds in my trees lots of different kinds,, My camera sucks sorry Ididn't get clear pictures,, But there were gold finshes wood peckers blue jays and cardinal and others in the tree I could clearly see but the camera didn't for some reason come out good,,

This is the best I can offer as far as pictures go,,
Do you know what these chubby birds are,,??

Your chubby little birds are one of the most sought after species by bird phtographers, Cedar Waxwings. They always move, feed, roost, breed, and raise their young in large, ravenous, Pirhana-like flocks. They are berrie eaters and will fly down en-masse to berry loaded trees and bushes and stay there eating all the berries until not a berry is left......ANYWHERE. Then they fly on to the next source of berries. I have 4 LARGE mulberry trees i my yard that ripen in May and during that time my yard is a mass of Cedar Waxwings. For the Month of May I live in my yard with a camera, chasing the Waxwings coming in only to down load the camera or get fresh batteries. They are unable to digest the natural wax found in most berries so secrete the wax throught their wings, that appears as a bright red spot on the tip of the longest wing feather. This spot is not always presents as it constantly falls off and is replenished. There are TWO type of Waxwings found in the US and Canada the smaller, less-colorful, more numerous Cedar Waxwings, in the South, and the LArger, More Colorful Bohemian Waxwings in the North and Canada. Angelblossom, yours are Cedar Waxwings. They should be in my yard in about 3 weeks. Here are some pictures of the two I took off the web.

CEDAR WAXWING



BOHEMIAN WAXWING

Angel blossom

Welcome to the bird life.. I like seeing them no matter . That must of been an awesome sight to behold yesterday.
Once the leaves come we dont see that well.
Thanks for cubbies.

I like them too.
Thorn has a nice choice of works..

Question Thorn. DOes he wear a Kilt?
Ha ha favorite joke in PA.. We go to the Bagpiper round ups and were very impressed.. HD is Irish so his love is for bothe.

Hope your daughter gets lots of photos..

b

Actually, Paul does have a Kilt. We even have pictures of him in it. I had to ask him THE QUESTION......What do you wear UNDER the kilt? His reply, "We wear nae a thing under the kilt."

Everyone in the U.S. asks Paul if he is Irish. He sighs and says, "I'm nae Irish, I'm Sco'ish."

ha ha

Is his talk hard to understand?

How did she find him/

Great picture Diane!!

Thorn, do I have the Waxwings here? Reason I'm asking is night before last I was looking out the window at the flower garden which has a big beauty berry tree on the side. All of a sudden about 50 birds flew into it. I mentioned it to Johnny and stood there for a while to see if they would fly out. They didn't. I couldn't figure out what was happening.

WOW Thorny! ,, Thanks sooooooo Much,, I couldn't believe that tree was FUll of birds,, all kinds but the Cedar waxwings were there in masses,, So that explains soo many of them!.
I knew I could count on you!!

Thanks Dodge and Sheri!!

You should have, Bestofour. They spend the Winter in the South and fly a little further north in Summer. In Nashville, we have them from September to June. Even when they are in your area they are hard to find. They stay in such large very compact flocks that they do not disburse much and therefore, trying to find them is more like trying to find a single bird in a national park. It is best to plant berry producing trees and bushes in your yard and have them come to YOU. The trees I have actually seen them feeding in personally are Holly, Mulberry, and Hackberry. I have four big Mulberries in my yard. In May, I am covered up with Waxwings when the berries are ripe. They eat them so fast, I don't get to eat any myself.

He has a heavy Scottish Brogue, but is quite understandable. Just pretend you're watching Pirates of the Caribbean and you want have any trouble. He and my daughter met on the internet several years ago. He loves the accent of the Old SOuth like in Gone With the Wind. He LOVES movies, especially American ones about the South. He owns 8,000 DVD's. I do declare, he loves fo' us to talk like Scarlett O'Hara.

Bestof4
Keep looking , I dont know anything about birds..
You can tell.

So that is why your practicing?????

Be a good impression on the Scots......Maybe he will get you a Kilt..
Thorn in a kilt.

Hear me girls ????????????????KILT...

Thorn in a kilt would be a horror show. Varicose veins, don't you know. Thorn is not nearly as handsome as he appears in pictures.

Show us Paul in a Kilt..........

Your excused.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder and we think you look wonderful.

Welp, my daughter went back to Texas Friday, so there goes the GOOG camera. On the brighter side, I WON A BRONZE AWARD ON PICLI.COM FOR MY PICTURE OF A STARLING!!! And here is my award winning picture:

OH, THE BEAUTY OF A STARLING



This goes with what I was saying about NOT ignoring the more common, everyday birds we take for granted. If you ignore them you miss tremendous photographic opportunitites.


Another thing to consider for bird photography is post production works, that is what happens when you get home and download your pictures. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BE THE BEST THAT THEY CAN BE!!!! You need to get a good photoprocessor. The state of the art one used by the professionals but simple enough for a beginner is Adobe Photoshop. I have and use Adobe Photoshop CS3 (the CURRENT best) and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (The basic essentials) I use both equally as much. With these you can cut out the parts of the picture you don't want, resize the new part, sharpen the picture, lighten the dark areas and dim down the bright areas, increase or decrease the color intensity and contrast and then save the new picture, using a NEW picture name so that you can keep the original unaltered original. This is actually my favorite part of photography because it allows you to play with your pictures and add effects or bring out nuances you hadn't noticed before.

you certainly do a good job with your pictures.

That appears to be a Turkey Vulture.

That IS a Turkey Vulture or TV as birders refer to them (no, not a television or a transvestite, a Turkey Vulture.) Nice shot, you captured the fingers well.