Share Birds

[pana-animalartist]

Beautiful Pileated, Isobel! Curious- why was IS off- any particular reason? Love your animal photos too.
For some reason this photo didn't show up on the list , at least not for me. I went to your flickr page to see it.

Cynthia

E-PL1 with Panasonic 45-200 micro 4/3 lens. Camera stabilization off.


Feeder is about 14 feet from my window.

Isabel

 

[pana-animalartist]

Nice..err....Mockingbird. :smile: Interesting perch. Background is a bit distracting- wonder if you could get a shallower depth of field> Sometimes impossible, I know. Very nice bird, anyway.

Another bird from the Greenway taken yesterday. I believe this is a sparrow.



Dj

 

[antithetic]

Cackling Goose

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Permanent resident of a local park near my parents house.

 

[Djarum]

Apologises to all you birders on that side of the pond, I'm going to trespass and suggest that it ain't no sparrow, how about it being a Northern Mockingbird?
Good diagnostic shot by the way Jason.

Barrie

I was looking at the alabama birding website, and when I looked at the mockingbird, this bird looked too squat and fat for a mockingbird. Maybe its a really "healthy" mockingbird? This picture here, while similarities, doesn't seem as proportional as this bird. Again, I'm no birder, lol, and I appreciate help. Maybe someone can tell me why its a mockingbird? I have several aquariums, and I can tell you WAY more about fish than birds.

Northern Mockingbird in Alabama

 

[Djarum]

Nice..err....Mockingbird. :smile: Interesting perch. Background is a bit distracting- wonder if you could get a shallower depth of field> Sometimes impossible, I know. Very nice bird, anyway.

I was really close, maybe 15ft away. I was really suprised that the birds just stayed there. Because I was close, it created more of a blurred background. There was a shadow, so the lens was at f5.6 to get a better exposure without having to worry about camera shake. I agree, the background is a bit much.

 

[grebeman]

I was looking at the alabama birding website, and when I looked at the mockingbird, this bird looked too squat and fat for a mockingbird. Maybe its a really "healthy" mockingbird? This picture here, while similarities, doesn't seem as proportional as this bird. Again, I'm no birder, lol, and I appreciate help. Maybe someone can tell me why its a mockingbird? I have several aquariums, and I can tell you WAY more about fish than birds.

Northern Mockingbird in Alabama

Jason,

The shape of the bill rules out a Sparrow, they have relatively short bills, rather deep at the base. This bird has a longer, finer bill more suggestive of an insect eating species.

The longest feathers of the wing are the primaries, normally 10 in most birds, even Albatrosses. These form the pointed end of the wing when closed and the outermost feathers on the open wing.

With the wing is closed these are over laided by the secondaries, which on the open wing form that section between the inner most primary and the body of the bird. These can vary in number between about 10 in smaller birds and perhaps 40 in an Albatross. The 3 innermost secondaries nearest the body are normally larger and given a special name, "tertials".

To close the gap between these the primaries and secondaries and the front edge of the wing there are various rows of coverts. In your bird the greater coverts are that black row of feathers with white borders that form wing bars across the wing. Notice that at the outer edge of the rear wing bar is a larger almost square patch of white feathers. This is a diagnostic feature of the Northern Mockingbird. In flight these would show as quite large white patches on the upper surface of the open wing.

The tail is quite long for this bird, it would have white outer tail feathers seen from above and those extensive white feathers seen from below.

The area between the eye and the base of the bill known as the "lores" is dark on your bird, this again can be diagnostic

So far I've just scratched the surface of bird identification, but I hope that's given you something to go on with.


Barrie

 

[Djarum]

Barrie,

Thank you for your insight. Around here, we have a ton of similar looking birds.

 

[JudyM]

From the white feathers on the tails, I'd say both birds are mockingbirds. They are very slender birds, but birds will fluff their feathers when cold, sick, relaxed, or wet. They'll pull their feathers tightly against their bodies when hot or on alert. The wet bird is probably trying to stay warm and dry out. The other bird's feathers are hanging loosely. To me he just looks very relaxed and not feeling threatened.

For many years I was a technician in a veterinary hospital that specialized in exotic animals. Because of our work with licensed wildlife rehabilitators around the state, we did a tremendous amount of wildlife rescue. I always loved working with the mockingbirds. Their song is more beautiful than any canary and they're very masterful at imitating certain kinds of sounds. We had one that stayed around long enough to pick up the beep of the microwave and the creaking of a door.

Antithetic: nice Canada goose. I rescued two of those, one only 3 days old, the other an adult who had been shot in the wing, then became tangled in fishing line. If only people would take time to cut their tangled or broken fishing line into pieces too small for animals to get tangled in.

 

[ricseet]

Black Bittern
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricseet/5260472531/" title="Black Bittern by ric seet - sorry am busy &amp; catching up!, on Flickr">

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"1024" height="768" alt="Black Bittern" /></a>

Thank you for viewing and have a nice day.

ric

 

[Warren T.]

Great Egret in Flight

This was taken at Redwood Shores, near Redwood City, California. I saw this egret stalking prey by the shore and I got a number of static shots of it. Then it got tired of me standing there and decided to take off. I wasn't really prepared for the sudden flight, but I still managed to get this one shot.

Lumix GF1, Lumix 45-200mm

http://fototime.com/45967EAB68AEB98/orig.jpg" border=0 alt="Hosting provided by FotoTime">

--Warren

 

[grebeman]

Warren,

A good example to point out something I raised earlier in this thread, the feather structure of a birds wing.

Despite this Great White Egret having all white feathers you can plainly see the 10 primaries, the outermost feathers of the wing with at least 15 secondaries inside them to the point where the wing meets the body.

The front half of the wing has several layers of feathers, both above and below the wing. These in effect cover up the gaps that would be left in the wing where the quills of the primaries and secondaries are anchored to the wing bones.

At the base of the primaries are the primary coverts whilst there are three layers of feathers at the base of the secondaries, these being the greater coverts, the median coverts and the lesser coverts.

These feathers are often of a different colour and can have different coloured tips (usually pale or white) which form the wing bars seen on many bird species.

Here endeth lesson two


Barrie

 

[pana-animalartist]

I think you did very well to get a good exposure on the bird. Probably there's nothing you can do about those white "bubbles" if you're shooting into the sun- I wish I had an answer for that!

I was really close, maybe 15ft away. I was really suprised that the birds just stayed there. Because I was close, it created more of a blurred background. There was a shadow, so the lens was at f5.6 to get a better exposure without having to worry about camera shake. I agree, the background is a bit much.

 

[pana-animalartist]

Terrific photo!! Was this taken with the 70-200?

Black Bittern

Thank you for viewing and have a nice day.

ric

 

[john1027]

A Red Shouldered Hawk who paid a visit to a holly tree in my back yard this morning.

GF2 & 45-200 @200mm; iso/400; f/5.6; 1/25

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[Djarum]

Very nice hawk!

 

[jhob]

This was taken at Redwood Shores, near Redwood City, California. I saw this egret stalking prey by the shore and I got a number of static shots of it. Then it got tired of me standing there and decided to take off. I wasn't really prepared for the sudden flight, but I still managed to get this one shot.

Lumix GF1, Lumix 45-200mm

http://fototime.com/45967EAB68AEB98/orig.jpg" border=0 alt="Hosting provided by FotoTime">

--Warren[/quote]

beautiful!

 

[ricseet]

Hi pana-animalartist

This was taken with the Oly E5/150mm.f2/EC20 giving a 600mm f4 reach.

BTW, I am not familiar with the 70-200? Which lens is this?

cheers

ric

Terrific photo!! Was this taken with the 70-200?[/QUOTE]

 

[ricseet]

Hi John

Great capture!

Thanks for sharing your posting.

ric

A Red Shouldered Hawk who paid a visit to a holly tree in my back yard this morning.

GF2 & 45-200 @200mm; iso/400; f/5.6; 1/25
[/QUOTE]

 

[ricseet]

Hi Warren T

Great capture!

Thanks for sharing your posting!

ric


This was taken at Redwood Shores, near Redwood City, California. I saw this egret stalking prey by the shore and I got a number of static shots of it. Then it got tired of me standing there and decided to take off. I wasn't really prepared for the sudden flight, but I still managed to get this one shot.

Lumix GF1, Lumix 45-200mm

--Warren[/QUOTE]

 

[gscara]

Hexanon 135mm f3.2 - Parrot

I recently purchased a Hexanon 135mm f3.2 for the outrageous price of $12. This portrait of a grey parrot was taken at the Bloedel Floral Conservatory in Vancouver. The shot was taken with the G1 and the lens wide open.

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