Bird Photography for Birders

Indigo Bunting

My love of nature began when my father gave me a camera to stick in front of my face.  I was probably 7-8 years old when my father let me use his old Nikkormat camera as we walked around Mt. Diablo in California. In my adult years, though, I have become more interested in wildlife and bird photography, and eventually, birding.  These two interests of mine I believe have been mutually beneficial.  I've found that as I've learned more about birds and birding, I take better photographs--I've learned more about my subjects.  But I've also found that responsible photography has made me a better birder.  I still think of birding as a photographer, and it's become helpful for me to think of four basic types or uses for bird photography.  There are no sharp divisions between these, and they may overlap considerably.  But I think these four purposes for bird photography can be very helpful to any bird photographer or birder with a camera.

1.  Identification

At the most fundamental level, photography can be extremely useful in identifying birds.  After all, birds do not always stay put long enough to make and confirm an identification.  But if you get a photo, you can take your time to make sure you have the right identification. I usually toss these photos out if their only use to me is identification, with one exception.  If it's the only photo I have of a species, I'll keep it as what I call a "placeholder" photo; it holds the place of a good photograph of the species. I found the Louisiana Waterthrush below at Mead Gardens, and it's my only photo of the species.  When I found this bird, it stayed there only for a couple seconds before it flew off.  I was so glad to have taken this photo of the bird so that I could more clearly see the white supercilium.   And since I'm colorblind, it was nice to show this photo to someone with proper color vision to tell me that the rear flanks were buffy in color (I simply can't see it).

Louisiana Waterthrush

Also, back-lit and side-lit birds can be difficult to identify in the field.  When a bird is back-lit, your eyes often cannot perceive colors or details, but with a camera, you can overexpose the shot to capture details you could not otherwise see with your eyes, binoculars or scope. I found the Merlin below at Marl Bed Flats near my home.  It was side-lit, and with my eyes, the bird was pretty dark.  I knew it was a small falcon, but Kestrels are much more common here.  So I over-exposed this shot by 1 stop so that I could clearly see that in fact I was looking at a Merlin.

Merlin

But be careful.  Photography can also obscure some field marks, especially those that are behavioral.  For instance, one way to tell the difference between probing dowitchers is to look at their backs.  Probing Long-billed Dowitchers have a hunched back look, as if the bird "swallowed a grapefruit."  But photographs of dowitchers stop the motion of the bird's probing, and it may just capture a Long-billed Dowitcher without that trait or a Short-billed Dowitcher with it.  So while photography for identification is extremely helpful, some field marks are best seen in the field.

2.  Documentation

Beyond merely helping identify a bird, photography can be extremely useful for documenting a bird's presence.  Obviously this assumes a certain level of honesty on the part of a photographer, but photos can be extremely helpful. For instance, we see many Palm Warblers in Central Florida over the winter, but most of them are of the "western" variety.  Eastern or "yellow" Palm Warblers are much more unusual.  So when I see one, I always like to document their presence with a photo if I can.

Palm Warbler

Of course, documentation is very helpful for vagrants and rare birds.  A couple days ago I rode my daughter's bike around the northeast section of Lake Apopka to look for a Brown-crested Flycatcher a friend of mine had seen there.  When I found it, I took many photos.  The background is cluttered, and there's a tree limb covering part of the tail, but I was happy to show the photographs of the bird anyway.

Brown-crested Flycatcher

3.  Interpretation

I'm not just interested in seeing birds, I'm also interested in bird behavior.  I find their behavior fascinating.  And as a photographer, I love for my photographs to be interpretive of that behavior.  "Bird on a stick" photos can be wonderful, and I'm always happy to come home with one, especially a well-positioned bird with a clean background and simple composition.  But when a photo also interprets the bird's behavior and place in its environment, well, that's when I start to get pretty excited about bird photography.  I found this Loggerhead Shrike at Viera Wetlands back in 2011.  Shrikes impale their prey for at least three reasons: (1) they store their food for later, (2) over time the toxins in insects like lubber grasshoppers degrade so they don't become sick. And (3) lacking talons, they use barbed wire to hold their prey in place so that it can be consumed.  So I was ecstatic to see this shrike catch a grasshopper, impale it on barbed wire, rip off its legs, and then consume it in just a couple minutes.

Loggerhead Shrike

Loggerhead Shrike

Loggerhead Shrike

Loggerhead Shrike

4.  Artistic Expression

Art is a difficult idea to define, and there are many different ways people define it, but I suspect we can all agree that art is the product of creativity that expresses something beautifully.  I'm not one to divorce art from documentation or interpretation.  Art can take many different forms and serve a variety of different purposes, so I accept that journalistic photographs can be just as artistic as fine art paintings.  But whenever I go out into the field, my hope is to come home with something that has artistic quality to it. For me this means paying attention to form, color, composition, exposure, lighting, sharpness, angle of view, etc. to create a photograph that I would love to hang on my wall as a work of art.

Cooper's Hawk

Reddish Egret

Roseate Spoonbill

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Green Heron

Sandhill Cranes

Eastern Meadowlark

Scott Simmons

Learn Outdoor Photography