Birding and Bird Photography

After some great birding discussions and photographs in the official photography thread, I decided to make a thread devoted to birding/birdwatching and bird photography.

I am an avid birder and have taken a number of ornithology classes at university and I absolutely love birds, and I figure this will help others to appreciate them as well.

So, feel free to post up crazy sightings, bird identification questions, photographs, equipment you are using, resources etc.!
For ease in identification: Please include the general region and time of year you observed the bird if you need help ID'ing something.

To start things off, here is a shot I took of an Anna's Hummingbird in my parent's backyard in San Diego County for one of the challenges in the weekly photography challenge thread:

IMG_7570_edited_small by 92shawman, on Flickr
Taken with a Canon T2i with a 70-300mm lens

Good birding!

 

Awesome , I really enjoy birding

We have Anna's Hummingbirds that live here throughout the winter , it's crazy to see them out in the snow

 

Nice! I'm definitely jealous of your location, Ben. I visited Estes Park a few years ago during 4th of July and saw those broad-tailed hummingbirds zipping around. They were crazy!

P.S. Looks like you forgot to copy the hooded merganser link and pasted the steller's jay again.

 

Birds are great subjects!





Sorry for the crappy quality of this one-but check out the talons...the bird picked up the rabbit, carried it 6' in the air and then dropped it.

 

Today I was watching a bunch of Chesnut-backed Chickadees , a Nuthatch , Towhees , Oregon Juncos , Varied Thrush and an Acorn Woodpecker all feeding at my suet block

I gotta start taking pics

 

Saw two bald eagles in three days which is a rare event for Delaware. Got my iPhone out for the second one, which was a juvenile eating a small deer carcass.







Went home after and dusted off the old Cannon Rebel SLR. Maybe more pics to come.

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Oh yeah , that reminds me , I saw 2 Bald Eagles today too

 

Every evening at least one Bald Eagle flies over my house and down the ravine. Have thought about getting a picture but the trees are thick and timing has never been right.

On the suet feeder attached to the deck usually have a Red bellied woodpecker plus the other usual suspects waiting to take a turn. Today twice had a Pileated woodpecker on it, first time that he has come this close to the house. Temperatures are dropping down to the -20's F and colder starting tonight and they must know it, everything was hitting the feeders hard. Used my cell phone, he didn't stay around long either time and my digital camera isn't exactly high end either. Sorry about the poor quality but was all I had. But it was kind of exciting to see it that close.

 

OP, nice thread. I'm on a humming bird flyway in the Rockies. Each summer we have about 12 giant feeders and go through about 5 gallons of sugar water every two days, especially during July and August. Looks like a bee hive at the feeders and visitors are impressed.....especially as they will land on your hand! Have lots of Broad Tail and the noisy orange Rufus as they pass through early in the spring and then the return in the fall.

 

Sub'd. I was wondering when you guys were going to get this thread going.

 

Did you ID this guy? I'm pretty sure it's a Northern Harrier, but not 100% sure. Harriers are really cool, they've actually got a facial disk like owls do so that they can hunt small mammals in grasslands by sound.

This is one of my favorite Bald Eagle shots that you've posted. I love seeing those talons stretched out and the line at the primary wing feathers is really cool!

Nice! Yeah keep those feeders filled up! The hummingbirds will become dependent on them and if you forget to fill them up they can starve. If I remember correctly, hummers are like 3 hours away from starvation at any given time or something ridiculous like that.
My parents have a Rufous Hummingbird in their backyard and he always buzzes off with that flight whistle whenever we walk past his perch. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of him.

Beautiful Pileated Woodpecker, Cold Iron! I haven't seen one of those yet, I really want to!

Ben, the easiest way for me to tell between a raven and a crow is the call (you got it right, deep, throaty call is a raven) or the tail shape. Ravens have a rounded tail in flight that makes kind of a diamond shape when it's fanned out while crows have a more square tail that fans out into an arc.
Awesome Bufflehead and Mallard pictures, too!

I'll jump on the Bald Eagle bandwagon, too! Saw one this weekend up near the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge during a student hunter camp. Cool camp, too. Lots of Northern Pintail, Wigeon, a few Mallards, lots of Double-Crested Cormorants, tens of thousands of Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese, some Sandhill Cranes, oh and some Wood Ducks, too!

Just got back to Davis last night and today went out to the campus Arboretum to photograph birds. It started off kinda bland with lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Western Scrub-Jays but then it picked up when I started hunting down a Belted Kingfisher that I heard down the creek a ways. Got some good pictures of her that I'll upload soon. Also saw a Hermit Thrush, some Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a Green Heron, and a Nuttall's Woodpecker that posed fantastically for me. I'll get those pics up later today.

 

I'm pretty sure it's a Northern Harrier.

 

Oh yeah, Nice shot! Definitely a Northern Harrier. You can kinda see the facial disk I was talking about in that picture, too. The white arc on the side of the head.

 

Nice! I love raptors

 

Juvenile bald eagle from last summer's trip to AK.





He was hanging around stealing fish all week. The adults were too dignified and stayed pretty far away. He hung out about 10 yards away most of the time, waiting for a chance to sneak off with a sockeye. Gray sky background sucks but hey - it's Alaska. Clear skies are rare.

 

Weird lookin' bird! It's crazy how different the juvies are from the adults in the eagles.

Nice! I gotta write down my 2014 list...
What sources were you looking at for the range of the cooper's hawk and the quail? My guide (Nat geo Birds of North America) shows both species throughout the pacific north west year round. Although, what states are in the PNW? I was just looking at OR, WA, and northern CA.

Here are some shots from the arboretum I took earlier today:
Nuttall's Woodpecker:

Nuttall's Woodpecker 3 by 92shawman, on Flickr

Anna's Hummingbird:

Anna's Hummingbird at Flower by 92shawman, on Flickr

Green Heron:

Green Heron hunting 1 by 92shawman, on Flickr

Hermit Thrush:

Hermit Thrush by 92shawman, on Flickr

Belted Kingfisher: (Loved shooting her)

Belted Kingfisher 5 by 92shawman, on Flickr

Belted Kingfisher 2 by 92shawman, on Flickr

White-crowned Sparrow:

White-crowned Sparrow by 92shawman, on Flickr

 

I found a copy of Sibley's which is pretty good for id'ing birds. I have a couple of cheater cards for the locals.

 

Is your woodpecker not an Acorn Woodpecker Ben ?