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| Scarlet Tanager (female or juvenile male) |
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| Scarlet Tanager (female or juvenile male) |
The first of these is that you can go back and study a photo to determine what bird you saw if you weren't able to figure that out when viewing the live one.
The other reason its good to have pictures is that it offers proof that you actually saw something.
Case in Point: on Saturday I received an email from a fellow birder asking whether tanagers might still be around or if they had already all migrated through.
Rather conveniently, while trying to get a picture of a Magnolia Warbler in my backyard, I tracked some movement in a different tree which contained, along with a few Cedar Waxwings and Red-eyed Vireos, exactly what the other birder had been asking about: a Scarlet Tanager. Not only was this the first time I had ever seen a tanager near my house, but I was also able to get photos of it.
(Quick biology note: Yes, that is a Scarlet Tanager. The common name comes from the appearance of the adult male, which is bright red with black wings. Females and juvenile males are more of a greenish-yellow color. Interestingly, the scientific name for the species, Piranga olivacea (Olive Tanager) is derived from the appearance of the female (because Piranga Rubra (Red Tanager) was already taken for another species, the Summer Tanager). This kind of difference between the males and females is called sexual dimorphism.)
My camera really isn't that great, and the photos are of the expected quality. But hey, taking pictures of birds is HARD! Especially songbirds like tanagers. They tend to be rather far away in trees full of leaves that obstruct the view and prevent auto-focus from working, and they don't stand still for very long. For many of these species, I consider any photograph where the bird is in the frame to be a good photograph. My low standards are well suited for my picture-taking ability. The good news is that I tend to be very happy with my photos even if they are terrible from an art viewpoint. My attitude is often along the lines of "Sure, it's blurry and distant and badly lit, but a serious birder can see enough in the photo to identify what species it is!" The background image to this blog is probably my best photo of a wild American Kestrel, who was perched and nicely lit by the setting sun. He was still over 30 feet away, but that's about as close as you can get.
So why share this with you all? Does it matter that I take pictures that aren't nearly as good as ones you can find elsewhere on the internet?
Of course it does, because it means that you can also take blurry pictures of birds!
If you see something you don't recognize, snap a picture and send it to an experienced birder (that would be me, for those of you who have my email address), and no matter what kind of blurriness and bad lighting there is, they'll be able to tell you what you saw (Up to a point, of course. Not every picture is identifiable). Who knows--maybe you'll find something really awesome out there.
Happy birding!
Wow, I learned a lot from this post! I'm slowly learning to recognize some bird names from your birding emails and posts, even though I have no idea what they look like. I do remember that some Vireos were green...and I guess these female/juvenile male Tanagers are also greenish! The sexual dimorphism thing is interesting. I think I'd rather not be a male Scarlet Tanager.
ReplyDeleteYour second photo of the Tanager is excellent! Almost looks like one of those fake birds we used to put on our fake Christmas tree. I'm impressed by all of your photos. How close to the birds do you usually get, and how much does zoom play a part?
The camera I use is 6.1 megapixels at 12x optical zoom. A lot of more recent cameras do better than that. An iPhone 4S has 8 megapixels but no optical zoom.
DeleteDistance between bird and birder can vary a lot--earlier today I had a Black-throated Green Warbler land not more than three feet from me, but sometimes I identify loons and eagles at anywhere from a quarter to a half mile away.
The distance at which you can take a good picture depends on the type of bird as well as the camera. For songbirds, 50 feet is usually the maximum distance at which I can get a "good" picture, though its possible to get identifiable pictures at greater distances. For seabirds and raptors, 200 feet is still close enough for a "good" picture.
Arch, despite the fact that I feel insignificant in the shadow of your massive repertoire, I am happy to know that there is an ornithologist at Uni who I can go to with all of my bird-related questions.
ReplyDeleteHere are some questions I have for now:
1. What causes juvenile male Scarlet Tanagers to become red when they mature?
2. Are there many winter birds in Champaign-Urbana?
3. Do you go birding in the winter?
I look forward to learning a lot about birds throughout the next semester!
1. The yellow feathers gradually fall off and are replaced by red ones as the bird matures. The adult males actually cycle through red and yellow every year (red in spring and summer, yellow in winter), but we don't see many of them in their yellow plumage.
Delete2. There are around 50 species of bird that could be found in Champaign-Urbana in the dead of winter (even more if you include River Bend preserve in Mahomet). However, many of those are spread out and in small numbers and others don't even show up at all some years. A lot depends on how cold it gets. Still, you can expect 25+ species to be not too hard to find (especially if you know where to look).
3. Yes! There are a couple of species that are only here in winter. Winter is also a very good time for people who are just getting started in birding. First of all, birds are much easier to see because there are no leaves to hide behind. Birds are also more likely to come to feeders in the winter, because natural food sources are scarce, providing excellent viewing opportunities. On top of that, there are fewer species to try and differentiate from one another, so identification is easy.
Wow, Birding gets more and more interesting as I learn! I also saw a post on reddit of a small yellow warbler. It was the cutest thing. http://imgur.com/a/rbT0D
DeleteThis is really cool, Arch! It's crazy how much you know about birds and all the different bird names and groups (bird groups? not sure if that's a scientific term). I don't think I have the patience for birding--do you have to sit still for very long periods of time?
ReplyDeleteReading your blog, I realize that I've never noticed all the birds around me. I don't remember seeing any birds during the day, usually, but obviously this blog is evidence that there's lots out there. Your enthusiasm is infectious and I enjoy reading all your educational and interesting posts!
I like your thoughts abut photography--although not knowing much about birds myself I can seldom identify them without taking as good of a photo as I can and looking it up later.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't realized how little detail you could go off when identifying birds, although my attempts at photographing raptors overhead generally give nothing but the color.
If you can identify birds on such a small amount of information, have you considered using a WingCam? It's a small weatherproof camera that takes a picture whenever it detects motion. The pictures are never very good, but it might let you see more of what's out there.
This reminds me that I still have to send you that photo of the bird in my backyard that my son was so curious about.
ReplyDelete