Sometime back I had mentioned to Bob Zeller, who is a superb bird photographer, that I had taken a few photos of birds in my journey as a photo-hobbyist. They are nothing as good as Bob gets, but I like to think they have a little merit 🙂 Another photographer who also has superb photos of birds is David Fernandes, who doesn’t have a blog that I know of, but has some lovely images on his site. If you get a chance please check out Bob’s blog and David’s site, especially if you are a bird watcher!
Some of you may have already seen these images, as they are not new, the last “birds” I shot was a pair of ducks wobbling along the road.
I don’t have one of those nice 400 or 500mm lenses that do such nice jobs of bird photography, so I have to rely on being luckily close to the bird or just crop the image to get a nice final composition 🙂 I thought that I wouldn’t try to lump them all into one blog-post, and being inspired by Bob’s photography and Bob Marley’s song “Three Little Birds” I thought that three images would be just right for this post. By the way, I don’t think the two Bobs are related.
First up is a little fellow that visited the house across the street from me whilst that house was under construction, I suppose that it should be no surprise that with the wood around for construction, he and another pal visited, and when the word was done, I never saw them back there again 🙂
- The Wood and the Woodpecker
The second is the ever popular Kiskadee, one of the mobile telephone companies here even used them once as part of a campaign for their pre-paid mobile card vendors with the slogan “They’re just about everywhere”, more descriptive of the bird than the vendors, but we got the point 🙂 This one I took up at Good Hope Village on the East Coast of Demerara.
Finally there is this elusive little black and white bird that is so flighty (excuse the pun) that it is hard to get close to him for a good photo 🙂 I came out of my vehicle one day and there he was along the gutter, without trying to open my gate or anything, I reached into the vehicle for the camera and snapped off as many as I could before he flew off 🙂
- Black and White
As you can probably tell from my nomenclature and my evasive naming of the birds, I am no bird watcher, and even with the general biology degree, the identification of bird species was not on the syllabus, so if anyone can help me with the names, scientific and local I would be grateful. 🙂
It wasn’t until I previewed this blog-post that I realized that all the birds are facing left, quite a coincidence!
UPDATE:
Bob has informed me that the first photograph of the woodpecker is a Pileated Woodpecker. Thanks Bob.
The Michael Lam Collection's Blog 
Love the first one. 🙂
Thanks Nigel!
I love all three, Michael. This is a good example that you don’t need to be close to get great pictures of birds. That first bird is a Pileated Woodpecker, you are correct on the second, and I don’t recognize the third. But they all are wonderful pictures. Great composition. Well don!!!
Bob Zeller
P. S. Thanks for the compliments and the plug.
Thanks Bob, and the compliments and the plug are more than well deserved! Thanks for your compliments and the name of the WoodPecker!!
Photographing birds (as opposed to accidentally catching them) is a demanding exercise. This is one of the areas of photography, like fashion, that if you decide to do it seriously, you can’t really do much else.
So I agree that yours may not be at the level of Bob’s or David’s, but for someone who sits in an office 7-6 Mondays to Saturdays, and likes to photograph a variety of different subjects, they are pretty damned good.
Thanks Nik, catching them in flight is very hard, I almost never get a shot I am happy with, but if they sit still, I have a chance 🙂
I think the last one is a Cotton Springer, could be wrong, but that is way other boys where I grew up called them.
All are really good shots
Thanks Andrew, even if that’s not the true name, I like it, very descriptive! 🙂
Pileated woodpeckers are so cool.
Thanks Chris, I certainly found this one entertaining 🙂
Those are great shots, and I love the comical appearance of the woodpecker too…
Thanks Brian, he was definitely fun!
Great bird photos Michael. I do love the woodpecker as well.
I do enjoy my bird photography. Its a great way to get out in nature. Have a peek at the blue wren I posted that we have here. Great little bird.
Keep up the good work!
Cheers mate.
Thanks David, I admire bird photographers, their patience and the skill they have for those beautiful bird photos, I am just fortunate to get a few birds close 🙂