OT: any birders / bird watchers on this forum?

[oliver1850]

Originally Posted by rustychisel

Here's one from southern Australia, a Collared Sparrowhawk (Accipiter cirrocephalus), photographed in my backyard (with kill). She was distinctly unhappy at my intrusion, even when I was 30 metres away.

Similar to our Kestrel possibly the most brightly colored of North American hawks. They are very shy of humans and vehicles. I see them perched on electric wires along the road, watching the fields for mice. They will leave their perch, fly ahead and settle on the wire only to have to repeat the operation a few seconds after landing.

[oliver1850]

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).

Great shots. Even if I had good equipment I don't think I'd have the skill or patience to get any pics as good as those. This photo (taken with the phone from the tractor cab while driving down the road) of 15 turkeys in the bean field south of my house is typical for me.

[FlashUNC]

Once has a seagull try to pick my jersey pocket and steal my phone case out of it thinking it was food while riding the Bay Trail.

That's the best I've got.

[shoota]

And this is why I've tried to stay out of the bird forums. I'd get sucked in worse than bike forums.

There are some great shots here guys!

[ultraman6970]

We rescued 2 mourning doves, that counts?

[jamesdak]

Originally Posted by ultraman6970

We rescued 2 mourning doves, that counts?

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, dove breast pan fried in a little butter. Heaven!

[witcombusa]

I've got Peregrine Falcons on the roof where I work. The Female showed up back in 2011 and has had fledglings every year since.

Couple pix, first mom, and then a few of the youngsters

[echappist]

Originally Posted by kppolich

Glad to see there are some other bird watchers/Ornithologists here. My favorite class from college and also the one I retained the most information from was Ornithology. We met twice a week. Wednesday nights from 6-9 and then Thursday morning at 5am to go out bird watching. I can still remember the fist time I saw a Rose Breasted Gross beak.

was this in Wisconsin?

Originally Posted by oliver1850

I have red headed woodpeckers here. I usually see them on utility poles along the road next to the timber. They don't come to the feeder like the other woodpeckers do, even though the feeder is within sight of where I see them.

I'd love to find one around town in Madison, but I think i may need to travel a bit to find one

Originally Posted by witcombusa

I've got Peregrine Falcons on the roof where I work. The Female showed up back in 2011 and has had fledglings every year since.

Couple pix, first mom, and then a few of the youngsters

impressive shots; how close were you able to get to the falcons?

Originally Posted by nighthawk

A few shots from over the years:

thanks for sharing; what birds are those? Presumably limited to the tropics/sub-tropics?

[oliver1850]

Originally Posted by echappist

I'd love to find one around town in Madison, but I think i may need to travel a bit to find one

Just guessing from what I've observed but they may be too timid to hang out in a metro area. I'm sure there are plenty of them around Madison in the country, as their range covers most of the 48 states with the exception of the Carolinas, GA, FL, MS, AL, and LA. Range extends to most of Canada south and west of Hudson Bay, and to most of Alaska.

[nighthawk]

Originally Posted by echappist

thanks for sharing; what birds are those? Presumably limited to the tropics/sub-tropics?

The adult/chick pair are seabirds called Brown Noddy, photographed on Saipan, but wide ranging throughout the tropics.

The duck is a Harlequin, photographed on the Alaska peninsula. Pretty common on the North Atlantic coast and BC and Alaska. Maybe WA state, too? Not really sure to be honest. They are sea ducks and love rocky shorelines, though.

And the other is a golden white-eye only found on a few of the Northern Mariana Islands. This one photographed on Saipan.

[martl]

Originally Posted by echappist

in that case, probably one of the two below you saw. Both are native to much of Europe (but not North America, where chickadees reside). Their English names are blue tits and great tits. Combative little fellows. Chickadees are in the same family of birds though

Yes, that are a few of the little buggers i see frequenting my birdhouse, but there are at least three different sorts around, the yellow/blue ones ("Blaumeisen"), also yellow-black ones ("Kohlmeisen") and a less colorful sort. May even be sparrows

[echappist]

For the birders here, anyone have experience using Nikon 200-500 mm f/5.6E ED VR lens or something similar (say a 400 mm zoom lens)?

I have been using a bridge camera for the last two years and the measly image sensor means I don't really get to capture much feather details, not to mention that it is quite limited in its abilities (non-operative auto-focusing for conditions I need it, slow manual focusing, slowness in general under mediocre light, etc). Basically, it struggles in conditions where birds may be observed.

I have been thinking about getting a DSLR and telephoto lenses to go along with it, and was wondering how much of an improvement over what I have below could be reasonably expected.

I should preface the photos by saying that i must have taken close to 1000 photos of adult cardinals, as they are by far my favorite birds. Unfortunately, I rarely get any feather details, with the following ones the closest I've come. I've been able to get better photos of fledglings, but that's only b/c they don't fly away unless I get really close. But even then, the shots I really want (e.g. parents feeding fledglings) are often botched, as I can't acquire the shots fast enough under bad lighting conditions. Would the better sensor and a 400-500 mm focus help?

Also, anyone has ideas as to what the fledgling in the last photo has in its mouth? I wasn't sure if it was animal or plant.

[William]

A lot of great images in here! I wouldn't call myself a birder, but when I'm out hiking in the woods I like to know what I'm seeing. I've found these RTP Field Guides invaluable many times in identifying different bird species.






W.

[redir]

Originally Posted by 572cv

When its below freezing, having a little suet feeder is great for those guys. I think it is a red bellied woodpecker, which doesn't have a red belly, curiously.

Yup it's a REd Belly Woodpecker. Now's about the time I should put out some suet.

Originally Posted by oliver1850

Actually does have a small red area on its belly, sort of between the legs. Very hard to see in the wild - barely showing in the pic I posted. It's bigger than the similarly colored (but lacking the red spot on the belly) Hairy and Downy (smallest of the 3) woodpeckers.

That's about all I see on this little fella that hangs out at my feeder too. Just a touch or rouge.

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by oliver1850

Great shots. Even if I had good equipment I don't think I'd have the skill or patience to get any pics as good as those. This photo (taken with the phone from the tractor cab while driving down the road) of 15 turkeys in the bean field south of my house is typical for me.

Thanks. I think you’d be surprised what you could do though if you tried.