OT: any birders / bird watchers on this forum?

[zmudshark]

Google Lens says the original picture is a Red Tailed Hawk.

Google Lens is pretty good at identifying all sorts of things.

A couple of years ago my wife brought home about six large photo albums of Arizona birds. All printed and mostly labeled in nice albums. We have tried to find out who took the photos, but they may have never been digitized, so nothing to go on.

The photographer had some pretty cool pictures of Harris Hawks stacking, among hundreds of other pretty nice pictures of AZ birds.

Yesterday we watched a Cooper's Hawk shadow a pack of coyotes for awhile. I suppose he wasn't have much luck on his own, and hoped to steal something from the coyotes. As the coyotes moved up the mountainside,the hawk flew to better vantage points. I think they all went home empty handed. Wildlife is on the down turn in at least the PHX Mtn Preserve.

[rustychisel]

Originally Posted by echappist

wow, amazing shots. all those feather details, too. What equipment did you use?

Yes, amazing photos, jamesdak.

Originally Posted by echappist

is that bird native to Oz? reminds me of the sparrowhawks that are so common in England

Native to Australia and New Guinea, but named for species known in Europe or UK, as so many are. Thus we have our own magpie, plover, crow or raven etc, none of which are related to their northern hemisphere namesakes.

[merlinmurph]

Not much of a birder, though I'd love to get into it more. Love watching raptors, and haven't seen an owl in years.

I can watch a hawk soaring for hours. I'll stop the car, get out and just watch if I see one. Drives the wife nuts.

Thx for the pics.

[echappist]

Originally Posted by martl

i'm busy watching the chickadees wolfing throug my sunflower seeds at an unbelievable rate while sipping my morning coffee sitting on my balcony...

chickadees or meisens? I'd have guessed the latter, as you live in Bavaria?

[jamesdak]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

Here are a few random ones. Pretty sure these were all with a canon 5Dmk1 and 70-200 f/4L (that and a 17-40L is all I have besides a few M42 manual focus lenses).

Beautiful shots!

Did you know you can easily adapt those screwmount lenses to work on the 5D?

I've got several I'm using that way along with a slew of Contax Zeiss and Leica R lenses. The EOS mount is great for being compatible with a lot of old lenses.

These were done with a M42 mount Pentax 50/1.4 on Canon DSLRs





https://fotodioxpro.com/products/m42-eos-v2

[echappist]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

Here are a few random ones. Pretty sure these were all with a canon 5Dmk1 and 70-200 f/4L (that and a 17-40L is all I have besides a few M42 manual focus lenses).

thanks for sharing; i'm impressed that you could get that much feather detail from a 200 mm focus lens. Certainly hoping that I won't need much more than 300 or 400 mm for birding.

Originally Posted by zmudshark

Google Lens says the original picture is a Red Tailed Hawk.

Google Lens is pretty good at identifying all sorts of things.

A couple of years ago my wife brought home about six large photo albums of Arizona birds. All printed and mostly labeled in nice albums. We have tried to find out who took the photos, but they may have never been digitized, so nothing to go on.

The photographer had some pretty cool pictures of Harris Hawks stacking, among hundreds of other pretty nice pictures of AZ birds.

Yesterday we watched a Cooper's Hawk shadow a pack of coyotes for awhile. I suppose he wasn't have much luck on his own, and hoped to steal something from the coyotes. As the coyotes moved up the mountainside,the hawk flew to better vantage points. I think they all went home empty handed. Wildlife is on the down turn in at least the PHX Mtn Preserve.

haha, smart move. I'm impressed Google lens could identify it

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by jamesdak

Beautiful shots!

Did you know you can easily adapt those screwmount lenses to work on the 5D?

I've got several I'm using that way along with a slew of Contax Zeiss and Leica R lenses. The EOS mount is great for being compatible with a lot of old lenses.

These were done with a M42 mount Pentax 50/1.4 on Canon DSLRs





https://fotodioxpro.com/products/m42-eos-v2

Thanks your pics are really nice as well. I do have a few eos m42 adapters, I even have one with a focus confirm chip in it that works really well.

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by echappist

thanks for sharing; i'm impressed that you could get that much feather detail from a 200 mm focus lens. Certainly hoping that I won't need much more than 300 or 400 mm for birding.



haha, smart move. I'm impressed Google lens could identify it

I have to get really close to birds to get any kind of decent feather detail because of the full frame/200mm. What I want is the 100-400L. I can’t complain too much though since the lens reliably takes good sharp pics when I’m in range.

[Louis]

Haven't seen this particular breed at my feeders lately (pic was taken a few years ago) but the squirrels still come around and often manage to hop on.

[nighthawk]

Originally Posted by benb

These guys are really confusing.. we have a bunch of birds called "Flickers" which look like this and they are all quite hard to ID unless you have a good guide with you. (Which I almost never do)

Years ago my parents had a major issue with one of these during mating season deciding to "drill" their siding on their house. It was pretty crazy.. sounded like someone was hammering inside the house.

Flickers are beautiful. In most of North America we just have Red-shafted (western) and Yellow-shafted (eastern)... which are both just variants/races of the species Northern Flicker. The Gilded Flicker is on the baja peninsula and ranges into southern AZ, as well.. but has a limited range.

When I see Northern Flickers from afar, the white "rump" patch is the most obvious indication, but also often the flash of yellow or red in the wings depending on which flicker it is. And they tend to forage on the ground so you'll see them there or flying up from the ground into nearby trees when passing them on bike or in a car.

Woodpeckers are some of my favorite birds. Particularly awesome named species is the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker.

[nighthawk]

Originally Posted by josephr

its a yellowhammer...state bird of Alabama...also called a yellow-bellied sapsucker.

the hawk from the OP looks like an immature red-tail, way too big to be a Cooper's.

Naw, that's definitely a red bellied in his photo.

Yellow-Bellied sapsuckers are awesome, though.

[nighthawk]

A few shots from over the years:

[martl]

Originally Posted by echappist

chickadees or meisens? I'd have guessed the latter, as you live in Bavaria?

is that what they are called? possibly! Had to rely totally on dict.cc for the word...

[nighthawk]

Originally Posted by echappist

yeah, the plumage is really confusing

I swear i'm a lot more confused after reading a birder guide than I did before...



very nice. have you birded both in Guam and the contiguous 48? Any particular photos you really like?

Most of the time the birds I see are quite "mundane", though I always love it when a cardinal comes around (especially when it's snowing).

Yes I have birded throughout NA and now on Guam, but birding on Guam is limited for reasons too complicated to explain here. In short, the unintended introduction of a non-native species of snake has severely impacted the bird populations here. Some endemic species driven to extinction. Some native species extirpated from the island but still found elsewhere in the Marianas. The Brown Noddy (with chick) and Golden White-Eye photos are from Saipan a few years ago.

One of the appealing things about birds to me, is that often I find the mundane birds actually quite interesting and beautiful once I take the time to observe them, especially through binoculars and appreciate their color and patterning.

[nighthawk]

One more... this weirdo is willow ptarmigan from Alaska.