Please send in your photos. I got a new batch, so we have about three days’ worth of photos before this feature goes belly-up. Thanks!
Today being Sunday, we have some nice Australian bird photos from John Avise. His captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
Australian Birds, Part 1
This week’s post begins a mini-series on birds that I photographed on a business trip to Queensland, Australia in 2006. I had just purchased my very first camera, so this was my initial foray into avian photography, and I had not yet begun to learn the subtleties of lighting, the importance of background and avian posture, or the art of bird stalking. Also, it rained quite a bit during this nonetheless enjoyable expedition.
Australian Brush-turkey (Alectura lathami):
Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen):
Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus):
Australian Pelican, flying:
Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis moluccus):
Bar-shouldered Dove (Geopelia humeralis):
Black-faced Cuckooshrike (Coracina novaehollandiae):
Blue-winged Kookaburra (Dacelo leachii):
Brolga (Grus rubicunda):
Brown Gerygone (Gerygone mouki):
Love it
Australian birds are so interesting, thank you.
Very nice!
When I was a kid in Melbourne magpies tormented my cat, AND my Dad. Both stuck to walking under the eves of our house to avoid those wonderful monsters!
Dragons!
D.A.
NYC
The vertical branch in the Australian White Ibis photo- on first glance it looked like a third leg. (Something I’m sure Dall-e could accomplish.) Did you notice that at the time, or was it just an interesting accident?
I didn’t notice this at all until you mentioned it!
A great! I don’t know how one can control lighting for zoom lens photography of birds, other than photographing only on cloudy days, and doing a fair amount of post-processing.
By controlling lighting, I mostly meant orienting myself relative to the bird with the sun at my back. Now, I find myself almost always trying to position myself in that orientation. The net result is that now I seldom take pictures up-light or in dim light. I also like to take pictures in long-light (morning or evening, rather than at mid-day with the sun directly overhead). Whenever possible, i also try to position myself such that I can get a clean (rather than busy) backdrop for my subject, and wait for the bird to be looking in my direction. All of these photographing behaviors now seem to me to be almost automatic or instinctual.
Such avian wonders down under! They are made even more alluring by names like Brolga, Gerygone, and of course Kookaburra.
These are wonderful. The shot of the magpie captures how naughty they can be. What a fantastic country to go bird-watching in.
Thanks for another lovely set!
A great set of photos, especially the Brolgas, you should see them dancing!
Just want to point out that it’s not a Brush turkey, it’s a BUSH turkey.
They build huge mounds in which the eggs are incubated. The female lays them then the male looks after the mound, keeping the temperature constant by adding and removing material. The chicks are independent from the moment they exit the mound and disappear into the BUSH.
Wikipedia and other sources I’ve seen (including the Princeton Field Guide to the Birds of Australia) list this species as the Australian Brush-turkey (not BUSH). But thanks for adding a note about its reproductive biology. I’ve seen the mounds these birds build, and they are indeed quite impressive.
Ooh. I like the blue-winged kookaburra and the shot with the 3 pelicans in what looks like a marsh.