04 Apr 6 Ingredients for Bird Photography | April 2017

6 Ingredients That Make Bird Photography Successful

Black-throated Sparrow

If you want to take photos of birds, you need these 6 ingredients.

In order of importance, they are:

1) Birds

Obviously, you need birds. So you will need to go to places where you can find birds.

2) Habitat

Each bird depends upon a specific type of habitat for its survival. So the key to finding birds is knowing where they live.

3) Weather

For example, you will need bright sun to take photos of flying birds. Then you might want overcast days to take photos of perched hummingbirds.

Okay, I’ll admit that you can take photos of birds in almost any type of weather (although blizzards, hurricanes, and tornadoes present challenges).

4) Patience

Even with perfect birds and perfect light, you will have to wait. This happens because birds don’t wear watches. So they often miss appointments.

As a result, you wait. Then you wait. And you wait some more. Eventually, you decide to leave that spot so you can wait somewhere else.

5) Optimism

Certainly, your mental well-being matters, especially after waiting for hours without taking a photo. So you must find something positive in every experience, such as feeling delight that you were able to practice focusing your camera on a branch. After an hour (or two), you may become quite skilled at this.

6) Luck

Let’s recognize that a bird’s appearance is a random event that wasn’t supposed to happen. So if a bird, like the Black-throated Sparrow shown above, hops on a rock, that’s luck. Neither you nor the bird woke up planning that.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

Find More at:

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Help Birds Tip

Avoid Easter Grass

Please find an alternative to plastic Easter Grass. For example, use crumpled tissue paper or a piece of cloth.

Sadly, birds use Easter Grass to build nests. And then the bird becomes trapped in its nest.

Did You Know?

The most effective way to help birds is to buy land.

Here are three organizations that excel at doing this.

1) American Bird Conservancy

2) The Nature Conservancy

3) The Trust for Public Land

Please visit their web sites to learn about the work they do.

Here’s an excellent book: The American Bird Conservancy Guide to Bird Conservation

You can help – Please share this blog with others.

Inspiring Respect for Nature, one bird at a time.

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