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Fantails are nice birds to have around, aren’t they Tahlia! And happy to hang around close to people, too.
Thanks so much for your response, Donald! It was exciting to read, because I already have photos of Fantails and Kea in my portfolio! Now I have a complete set! Thank you!
Here is my first batch of Bird pictures!
A little story behind them.
Owl: Last fall this owl was hanging out in our backyard. One night my brother spotted it and called us out. I was able to get this picture as he shined his flashlight on the owl. I had him hold the light off to the side to give the bird side-light.Blue Jay: I was down in our meadow photographing some larkspur. I brought along my second camera with my 70-300 just-in-case I saw any birds. As I was getting ready to head home, I heard and spotted this blue jay. He was going along the branches pecking for bugs. My camera had a hard time focusing because it wanted to focus on the tree branches.
Morning Dove: I needed a dove picture, so one morning when I heard one cooing I headed out in search for it. I would call softly to it and it would answer, revealing it’s location. But I still couldn’t spot it- the brush was too thick. Then I saw it! This was the only picture I got before it flow away.
Indigo bunting: I was out trying to photography a blue bird as he feed his chicks. Across the road, we have a patch of batcher button flowers. I saw this fellow as he enjoyed the seed heads. But I didn’t get a picture until he flew to the trees.
-Hannah
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Here is my first submission!
I was so glad I was able to photograph a hawk! We’re in an urban area, so there aren’t any at our place, and the one I did see when up the hill was too hard to photograph…so it worked really well that our family did an unexpected trip further south where I was able to take this photo. The first one I saw was trying to snatch a bite of roadkill, but I had a steering wheel in my hands, not a camera, and I swerved instead of snapping a pic! Ah well, I got better chances the next day, and this picture was taken from a gravel side road that dad kindly detoured onto in pursuit of hawk photos!
And the Kea was taken last year when we were on holiday. Kea are apparently the world’s only true alpine parrot, and one place called them the “Clever Clown of the Alps”! Kea love rubber, and it is very normal for them to try and eat the rubber around car doors, and I even saw a picture of one trying to peck at a car tire! This one was on our van roof, about to try out a piece of something like linoleum sticking up.
–Laura
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Here are my photos for this assignment!
Sadly I haven’t managed to get a good shot of a Hawk.
@blessingscaptured So cool that you were able to photograph an owl!I hope the fantail is still able to be in the sparrow group for me…
The second picture is a Fantail / Pīwakawaka.
It is an active and curious bird, often seen darting around.The third picture is a NZ Wood Pigeon / Kererū.
The kererū is an NZ native wood pigeon, a large bird with iridescent green feathers, a white body, red eyes and feet, with some bronze and purple thrown in. They’re so heavy you can hear them easily when they’re around.
Known for being somewhat clumsy and mating for life, their wings beat very noisily when they take off, making a distinctive whoosh-whoosh sound.The last picture is a Kea – Bonus
Kea is the only alpine parrot in the world and can be found in the South Island of New Zealand.
Their name originates from their screeching call – ‘kee-ah’. They are rather cheeky birds!-Jemima
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This is the last picture
These are Australian Magpies which are common in urban and rural areas of New Zealand and are often seen foraging on lawns and in parks (I’m not sure if my picture is fully in focus).
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Wow, so fun to see the photos and hard work start to show up!!
@blessingscaptured, I can’t get over how cool that rooster photo looks! Such a beautiful composition!! And the indigo bunting is so pretty. We hardly have any blue birds here in Alaska,😕 so I love seeing them! And! I saw your owl in the Nature’s friend magazine the other day!!! I thought that was really cool!
@laura-aome, (Jemima and Laura) such a good job getting all the categories! That dove pic is so pretty and unique, Laura!! All so beautiful!-Leanne
Hello,
I’m having trouble identifying these birds from Oklahoma. Wondering if anybody might be able to identify them?
Thank you
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What a team!
@darien-radcliffe, the first one with yellow also has enough black to be a Dickcissel (“Dicky bird”). It also has a stouter beak than the yellow-and-black Meadowlarks. Then the second one, though the deranged feathers give it the look of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, may be a Mockingbird, especially if you remember seeing white flashes in the wings when it flew. And the third, I would have to leave it unidentified. The beak is not like a sparrow; the eye is large and expressive, almost like a dove; my best guess would be a young bluebird actually, or another thrush such as the Solitaire, which according to my book is only supposed to winter in your area.Good to see some grassland birds. All three certainly fall in the perching/sparrow type. The challenge might be that they don’t have their distinctive adult plumage yet, but perhaps a westerner can verify my guesses.
When the assignment came out, I was just looking at a new lens for my camera, which happened to be better for bird photography than my other one. So it ended up working out well (even if it arrived with only a week left to shoot!)
Most of my photos fell into one category (Chicken-like birds), because we live near the coast. It forced me to do some hunting around to find any in the Eagle and Raven categories.
– William
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Here’s my second batch of photos. I didn’t know all the names of the birds, but Google Lens helped me out lol!
For the Raven category, I am submitting an iconic NZ bird called a Tui. I found out today that “Tuis are known to be highly intelligent and have been observed using tools, such as sticks or twigs, to extract insects from tree bark,” so hopefully they’ll do for the Ravens group since they’re smart too!
The seabirds are apparently Pied Stilts, and I photographed them down at the local estuary.
And I had thought I might have another dove, but Google Lens tells me it’s a Feral Pigeon. I wonder if it’s the same type of bird as the one that you photographed, William? It looks similar!
And I’m also told that the sparrow is an Old World Sparrow, not a True Sparrow!
Thank you Donald; I’ve been learning a few things about birds because of this assignment!
–Laura
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@darien-radcliffe, Your second picture does look like a mocking bird. (We have one nesting in our yard).
I don’t know what your last picture is of the bird on the barb-wire; but I don’t think it’s a juvenile eastern bluebird. It doesn’t look like the one’s we have around our place. I’m attaching a picture I got last year of one.
-Hannah
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Here’s my second batch.
Blue Jay
Eastern Blue Bird
Tukey Vultures
Domestic hen turkey-Hannah
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Wow great job on the photos everyone!
When the assignment came out I wasn’t sure if I would be able to photograph it because I only have one lense for my Nikon 5600 (the Nikon Af-P 18-55mm), and getting good bird photographs with it is challenging. However, I was able to borrow a friend’s Nikon dslr and her lense (the Nikon AF-S 70-300mm) and was able get some great shots. It was a lot of fun to go exploring with her as well as try shooting with a different lense than I usually use!!!
I was only able to get photos for the chicken, dove, and sparrow categories though. We do have plenty of hawks in our area, but I didn’t see any while we were out photographing.Can’t wait to hear Mr. Staddon’s tips and advice on the webinar!
Here are my photos for the chicken-type bird category. I had especially had fun taking pictures of the ducks. They were so friendly and it was fun to attempt to capture their personalities and behaviors!! Pictures #1-4 are of various types of ducks, while #5 is a heron (I believe).
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