How I shoot Bluebirds

So, the next morning I woke up to the sound of Bluebirds. I was so excited that they were still here! I had to grab the camera and run out to see if “she” was still showing interest in my birdhouse.

Isn’t he beautiful! The males are SO bright right now.

I sat with my lens trained on the opening to the birdhouse waiting to see her peek out. There was no peeking this time, as she came out, he came down and I was so excited thinking I must have caught them terrifically. . .

Then so disappointed when I saw this on the computer. The focus remained on the opening, not the quickly moving birds. I’m thinking, if I had allowed the flash to go off I might have been able to freeze their wings, but then again I think they moved out of the area I had in focus so this is just it.

When she went back in, I tried again and she came out a little slower this time.

She’s doing a little house cleaning, but once again she moved out of my area of focus. Her little feet sure look good though, don’t they?

See, these last three photos all happened so fast I didn’t have the chance to move the camera.

She looks so sweetly curious, I just had to see what she was looking at. So, I moved the lens down, below her, and. . .

At this point I decided to go buy some nesting material to help encourage them to stay.

But this little Nuthatch caught my eye. I still thrill over the zany Nuthatches. I’ve only seen the white-breasted ones lately though and am kinda missing the itty bitty red-breasted ones. If you’re not familiar with Nuthatches, they are really fun to watch as the walk down trees eating insects from the bark. This guy had been digging around in some leaves prior to walking along the driveway.

This is a female Brown-headed Cowbird. These birds are new to me, but according to my bird book they are the only parasitic bird in the state, laying their eggs in host birds’ nests, leaving others to raise their young. So I guess they’re footloose and fancy free.

I was probably 20-30 feet away from the birds in these photos. That’s typically about as close as they’ll let me get. That’s my set-up there for birding. The 100-400mm on the Canon 40D, they are pretty much married, it’s rare for me to change the lens on that camera.

That’s the zoomiest lens we have and it can be used on any of our cameras. That being said, if it is put on the 5D, it would not be as zoomy. The 5D has a full frame sensor and the other cameras (Xti, 20D, 40D) have smaller sensors. Think of them like widescreen and full frame movies. When we bought the 5D, I almost got a 5D too, but I knew that I like to bird and the smaller sensor gives me more zoom. So I went with the 40D.

The 40D has a fast processor and many sports photographers choose it. It reacts quicker than the other cameras. It can shoot 5 frames per second compared with their 3 frames per second. This matters in birds. And when I saw the bird guy speak a couple of weeks ago, he says he uses the Canon 40D too, and he’s a pro.

Let's Photograph some birds

I spent just a little time in the yard yesterday and in addition to seeing my everyday juncos, finches, nuthatches, and downy woodpeckers, I found for you a Robin.

A pair of Cardinals.

A Hairy Woodpecker. He’s been hanging around for a while and I was surprised how much bigger he is than the Downy’s.

For the first time ever, I saw a Brown Creeper, right in my front yard! I don’t care if the picture is fuzzy, it still proves I saw him. I guess the point I’m trying to make by showing you these photos is that when I see a bird for the first time I try to get a photo, any photo and then try to get a beautiful photo when I can. I usually start by snapping at a safe distance and then slowly walk towards the bird. Snapping as I step. Unfortunately, this was the only shot I was able to get of this guy and I hope he comes back.

Fibi alerted me to this fellow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Brown-headed Cowbird before yesterday either. He didn’t seem to mind Fibi scratching at the screen and I shot through the screen. When I opened it, he flew away.

One more first. . .

A Pied-billed Grebe, found while walking along the river a few days ago. Then as I went back to the car I caught a little acrobat.

My husband tells me that “Professional bird photographers set their tripod up and probably wait hours to get the shot.” I have no patience and I have heard some of you saying that you don’t either. My bluebirds, from a few days ago, I drove into a cemetery, spotted one, and snapped from my car, I got lucky, but if I hadn’t we would have missed them, because I can’t sit still.

This was my first bluebird shot, taken through the front window. Aren’t you glad I didn’t stop with the first shot?

So, my point in all of this, is grab your camera and go snap those birds. Practice makes perfect. Some of the best places I’ve found, to find birds easily, are cemeteries. Often you can you can use your car as a blind. Give it a shot, and maybe in a couple of days I’ll have some more tips for you. I will be going to the “Photographing Birds” by Jim Miller, Wednesday evening.