Readers’ wildlife photograph

December 12, 2014 • 4:20 am

I’m off for my last visit to the dentist this a.m., and since my readers’ wildlife photos are in an e-file at work, I have only one today that, fortuitously, reader Stephen “D*g-Lover” Barnard from Idaho sent last night. It is a great photo of a Tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), and I haven’t the slightest idea how he managed to capture this speedy and acrobatic bird. (They catch insects on the wing.) His caption:

I don’t think I’ve sent you this before. It’s a remarkable photo. These birds are rockets.

Swallow

Below is a video showing some of their behavior, and there’s another nice clip (which I can’t embed) at Arkive.  And you can hear three different types of calls here.

Note that juveniles (there’s one in the video) are brown rather than iridescent turquoise; they get their sparkly plumage, shown above, after the first year.

Finally, these birds (like starlings) roost communally in the non-breeding season, and you can see videos of some of their massive aggregations here and here.

 

 

27 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photograph”

  3. I hope that Stephen is compiling his incredible photos for publication. They would serve admirably as either a local field guide or a coffee table book, and I would certainly buy one (or several, as gifts)!

  5. The photo of the swallow reminds me that I need to find a bird expert around here to sort out the swallows and martins. I believe we have both and a few people even mention swifts but I don’t think so. Swifts are Europe and other places but not here.

    The martins are often called purple martins but I’m not sure on that. Possibly we have some Gliff swallows because I see some of the mud houses they have built. Whenever I’m out mowing on the tractor the show really gets going with the birds flying and diving all around catching the bugs. They are the most skilled fliers.

        1. If they have forked tails, they are barn swallows (www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/barn_swallow/id) which are quite common in southwest Minnesota, build mud nests under the eaves of buildings, and also collected insects when I mowed as a teen. Every fall, hundreds would congregate on the farm before migration.

        2. Then you’d at least have Chimney Swifts. They’ve probably migrated south by now, but come next spring you might watch for them hawking insects on late afternoons.

        1. In fact, I don’t believe it is a swallow. I think Stephen has glued a comedy beak onto a flying fish.

  7. Gorgeous. Wonderful shot Stephen!

    Just to be perverse, in the vid, none of the tree swallows were in trees, although I did hear a chainsaw in the background in one clip.

    Those mass aerial displays are, to me, one of nature’s best bits.

  8. “I haven’t the slightest idea how he managed to capture this speedy and acrobatic bird”

    Practice, practice. Exposing many many times.

    BIF shots are about:
    1. Being out there
    2. Shooting a lot of shots (persistence)
    3. Luck

    Well done Stephen! What was the shutter speed?

  9. Beautiful photographs. I have been enjoying them along with other readers. Good time to mention the 115th annual Christmas Bird Count starts on December 14. My only observation of Xmas is this annual counting of birds. Data is kept by the Audubon Society.

  14. I can attest to how hard it is to get an image of a flying swallow with such quality. I have tried a variety of strategies with some success, but it is a numbers game. You take maybe hundreds of images to get a few passable ones. Good equipment and lighting help a lot!

  15. One tool I made is a DIY peep sight, with about a 15″ (40cm) sight radius. It mounts to the lens’ tripod mount. It really aids acquiring a bird in the field of view. Focus is another matter!

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