A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Hobbies, Crafts and Creativity The Bird Lovers Forum My first bird I identified all by myself

We saw these by the locks and there were the darndest things to get pictures of. They were either in motion, too far away, or in a shady area. But I did my best and after we got home I was determined to figure out what they were and I figured it out! Cormorants! I found them very interesting, especially when they would fan their wings. I found out they do that to dry their wings in between dives because their feather are not water proof the way ducks feathers are. I was so proud of myself and now I'm hooked on trying to identify birds. Anyway, on to the pictures!


There were in motion most of the time, whizzing by before I had a chance to get my camera ready.


The fanning out the wings.


Of course they all started to perch in the tree as the sun was going down and I still couldn't get a really good picture, but I thought this was pretty anyway.

That last shot is beautiful, Cheryl. Great job on the id too.

You nailed it!

Awesome Pictures Cheryl~ and I.D.
Thorny taught me a a camera technique,, if you have a backlight Mode on your camera ( it uses flash against a lighter background so you don't get silhouettes ) you'll get clearer pictures of the object,

Wonderful pictures. Love that last one especially. This stuff is addictive. Did you use an online tool for the ID?

Diane, my camera isn't fancy enough for a backlight feature, but I still think it's pretty good. One day one of those birds will cooperate with me.

Sheri, I went to Seattle audubon society and they have a link to something called birdweb that helps you identify all types of birds that come here to seattle and surrounding areas. It's a really cool website, they give you pictures (although not all the pictures are helpful), descriptions, habitat, mating season, migration, sound clips, and general information about those birds. It took me about an hour going through the list to find them, but find them I did!

Try Whatbird, Cheryl. It's free and online. It's at whatbird <DOT> com.

Thanks, Thornius. I saw that they also had an iphone app and after a couple hours of debating on whether or not I wanted to spend $10 for a phone app I went ahead and bought it. Now I have a bird field guide on my phone and will (hopefully) be able to more quickly identify birds while I'm out and about!