Learning to Bird

Portrait of a Red Shouldered Hawk

Since my initial entrance into the world of professional free-lance photography (i.e. our work started selling) came as a result of my wild bird portraits, the questions most people ask is “How did you get started birding?” Karl and I always did some birding, but not too seriously. We drifted into it, noticing more when we hiked, starting to take more interest in migrations, and referring to the guidebook more frequently. When Karl decided it was time for me to plunge head first into the digital SLR world, a telephoto lens was part of the package. I started shooting wild bird portraits, and my nature and photography interests joined. At that time Karl volunteered as a docent and naturalist at a local nature preserve, and worked closely with the ornithologist on staff. We both started attending bird hikes and programs, and birding more on our own.

This led to an invitation to join a local birding team. The team followed a protocol set up by the research director with the goal of long term population sampling along specific routes. Each person had identification strengths in different and similar areas: some experts at bird calls, some at bird behavior or movement, and some at visual ID. As I learned more about birds, my photography of them improved. “Know thy subject” applies to all areas of photography.

Things change. The team is no more, a combination of politics by the local organized birding group leaders who wanted to be in charge and who shall remain nameless, and the fact that most of the researchers were laid off for economic reasons and the data we collected languished. People dropped out of the team for various reasons until the last three of us hung up our binoculars two years ago.

Bird photography changed during this time. The proliferation of decent, inexpensive zoom lens made most bird photography available to any photographer, and the stabilization technology even made the classic "bird catching fish in talons as they fly over water" shot within anyone's reach. The photographs in National Geographic and other higher end magazines switched from the portrait to action shots of birds in their natural habitat, and engaged in various behaviors. That sort of photography requires more knowledge, patience, and skill. Thinking back, the photograph that started us on the professional road was a behavior shot, nesting Great Blue Herons exchanging nest building materials. It was popular, but the portraits more so and I concentrated in that area.

 

Photographs like this from 8 years ago are within anyone's reach with a good image stabilized zoom and a little patience

After a nearly two year break from active birding, I am re-learning to bird, exploring many of the advanced techniques of identification I only touched on before, and striving for the high impact shots. I’ll be writing about this journey as it progresses.

Remember, when you walk in nature with a camera you may not get any photographs worth keeping, but you’ve had a wonderful walk, great exercise, and have memories worth keeping. How many endeavors can make that claim?