Monthly Archives: June 2014

Photographing Black Billed Cuckoos in SW Michigan

June 26, 2014Cuckoonmckown

Finding Unusual Birds to Photograph

Whether you’re a birding expert with an extensive life list under your belt or a bird photographer out to capture the beauty of birds and write about her birding experiences, finding uncommon birds is exciting. This is true whether the bird is not common in a geographic location or it is a common but difficult to find bird that is mostly heard but rarely seen by birdwatchers.

Bird ID and Stringers

The birding culture puts lots of importance (and accolades) on those birders who find and document rarely seen birds. Skill, conviction, trustworthiness, and ID skills in a master birder are pretty important. If a birder reports unlikely and unsubstantiated sightings, her integrity may be tarnished with the worst label of all in the birding world: A stringer.

Stringers are birders who are overly zealous with their IDs, perhaps intent on glory, and string people along about their sightings. They intentionally mislead others about seeing a rare bird- and do it often enough (without evidence) that their credibility and good name are jeopardized. Suspect IDs are labeled “stringy”.

Shoot Fast, Check Later

Bird sightings happen so quickly while out in the field. The bird is often gone long before I am able to ID it. Trying to remember what it looked like is also a challenge. It’s better for me to quickly photograph any suspect sighting, no matter the conditions. My camera lens can get a much closer, clearer look than my eyes ever could. Afterwards, the photos give me a moment to reflect on my ID skills and then, if necessary, post the photo for a definitive ID.

Northern Shrike and Black Billed Cuckoo

I’ve had 2 sightings (with photographs) about which the on-line birders and birding associates were excited and asked for more location information. The first one was a northern shrike – verified with a far off, blurry photo that had enough substance to get an ID. The second sighting was the secretive Black billed Cuckoo, shown below. The Cuckoo was photographed in the Wau-Ke-Na Preserve near Glenn in Southwest Michigan. Both of these birds fall into the not often seen in SW Michigan category. A lot of birders have yet to add them to their life lists.

The black billed cuckoo is a forest dweller, often hiding in the thickets and undergrowths. His main diet consists of spiny caterpillars. He has a very distinctive song, and is more likely to be heard rather than seen.

This black billed cuckoo perched on a tree branch for less than a minute. He did not make a sound. When I saw him land, I didn’t take time to think about what he was. I just pointed, focused and held down the shutter button until he was gone. The photo below was the most useful of the short burst of shots taken.

Photo of Black Billed Cuckoo — Black billed Cuckoo- A Rarely Seen Species that Nests in SW Michigan.
Photographed in the Southern Wau-Ke-Na Preserve, Near Ganges, Michigan.
ISO 640; f/11; 1/1000 Second

Photography Has A Lot To Do With Luck

It’s hard to overestimate the impact of luck when you are out birding with your camera. I plan on listening more for the black billed cuckoo’s song. Hopefully, I’ll be lucky enough to get more photographs of this secretive bird.

More Information on Stringing

A most excellent article on this topic (On Stringing… by George Armistead) can be found at this link.

Photographing Hard to ID Flycatchers

June 19, 2014Flycatcher, Vireosnmckown

Bird Photos Are Not Always Enough

Last week, while roaming in the Allegan State Game Area, I photographed what I knew to be some species of flycatcher. To get a more precise ID, I uploaded the photo to WhatBird.com. The responses I got back from the experts at What Bird helped me understand how complex the identification for empidonax flycatchers can be. Clear photographs just aren’t enough for every ID.

Flycatcher Photo — Adler/Willow -aka Traills Flycatcher
ISO 640; f/9.0; 1/800 Second

ID Quandary on This Flycatcher

A little background: Back in the 70’s, the Alder flycatcher and the Willow flycatcher (once considered to be the same species of bird and named the Traills Flycatcher) were determined by researchers to be two separate species. One of the most definitive characteristic that separated them was the width of their eye ring. The Willow shows a less defined eye ring compared with the Alder’s more distinctive eye ring. To complicate matters, other Empid flycatchers, like the Least flycatcher, have similar ID characteristics to the Willow/Adler Flycatcher.

Even with the bird-in-hand, the experts agreed that empidonax flycatchers are very difficult to tell apart. The discussion on the WhatBird site was that this bird I photographed was either a Least Flycatcher or a Willow/Adler or Traills Flycatcher (Traills=the former name before they were pronounced 2 different species.) Eventually, the consensus was that it was not a Least (due to the rather faint eye ring).

Pyle Guide

The bird ID discussion on this little flycatcher included a reference to “Pyle”. A quick web search identified Pyle as a technical birding ID guide, often used when precise reference information about plumage, age, sex, wing, tail, bill measurements, etc. of birds is needed. The Pyle guide (Identification Guide to North American Birds by author Peter Pyle) is the authoritative source on Bird ID for researchers, bird banders, and bird ID experts. So much detail is included in Pyles that it is mostly useful when you have the bird-in-hand.

Not a Birding Field Guide

The purpose of the Pyle guide is to document complete, accurate and uniform ID criteria for ornithologists and other people engaged in bird research. After all, there has to be an authoritative reference guide for bird banders to use. Bird banding based on best guesses of well meaning birders would not have scientific value. This rather intimidating, over-the-top resource is certainly not targeted for bird photographers like me, nor is it a useful guide to take in the field with your binoculars.

Photo of Flycatcher — Adler/Willow aka Traills Flycatcher
ISO 640; f/9.0; 1/800 Second

Final Word on This ID

Birding expert Steve Tucker helped finalize this bird ID for me. He wrote:

“With all the power vested in me by the Global Birder Ranking System, I pronounce your bird to be a Willow or Alder Flycatcher (in other words, Traill’s). Empids can certainly be variable, but I have never seen a Least with such a thin eyering.”

Steve’s excellent blog posting about hard to ID flycatchers, The Truth of Empidonax can be found at this link.

Will I Ever Get Better at Bird ID?

And…. just when I thought I was making progress with my bird ID skills, I discovered that what I thought was a flycatcher (who knows what kind) was, in fact, a Warbling Vireo. See Photo Below. WhatBird experts explained that the eyebrow plumage (known as the supercilium) starting at the beak and ending near the rear of the head is not a characteristic of flycatchers. In addition, the wing bars are different and the bill on the Warbling Vireo is not as broad across the base as the bill of a flycatcher.

It’s all about paying attention to the details.

Warbling Vireo Singing His Heart Out. Most definitely
NOT a Flycatcher. Note the eyebrow plumage (known as the supercilium)
starting at the beak and ending near the rear of the head.
ISO 640; f/11; 1/1000 Second

Note to self: Always check with the bird ID experts before posting a bird photo.

Photographing Rose Breasted Grosbeaks in Our Certified Wildlife Habitat

June 12, 2014Grosbeaknmckown

Gardening for Wildlife

Some days, it’s nice to just stay home to watch and photograph the bird activity in my own back yard. Thanks to my husband’s long term planning, serious study and countless hours of hard work, our home’s landscaping is a beautiful and welcoming refuge for wildlife. Full of many different, shade loving, colorful, indigenous trees, bushes and plants, this inviting outdoor space provides an abundance of water, food, cover and nesting areas to attract a wide variety of wild birds. As our yard has blossomed and grown over the years, it has become a safe habitat for nesting birds and also weary migrating birds just passing through SW Michigan and needing a place to rest.

Photo of Male Rose Breasted Grosbeak — A Young but Colorful Male Rose Breasted Grosbeak. Notice That He
Still Has Some of His Brown Juvenile Feathers.
ISO 1600; f/6.3; 1/4000 Second

Photographing Rose Breasted Grosbeaks

Having this place, this wonderland in which to photograph birds, is a blessing. One of the most beautiful birds in our yard is the Rose Breasted Grosbeak. These large billed, stocky, medium sized birds are forest dwellers, and bold enough to be attracted closer to the house by the seeds in the bird feeders. The males are black and white, with a definitive bright red patch on their breasts. The females and juveniles have very different coloration, streaked brown and white feathers, but the same triangular bill.

Photo of Male Red Breasted Grosbeak — A Young, Male Rose Breasted Grosbeak Taking Flight. Notice the Pink Flash Under the Wings.
ISO 1600; f/6.3; 1/4000 Second

Photo of Female Red Breasted Grosbeak — Female Rose Breasted Grosbeak, Very Different Coloration Compared
With the Male Grosbeak. Sexual Dimorphism in Color is Very Common in Birds. Most Often, the Female is Blandly Colored- All the Better to Be More Concealed on the Nest.
ISO 1600; f/5.6; 1/1600 Second

Design Your Own Back Yard Bird Refuge

You can’t beat the convenience of staying home to photograph birds, whether you are sitting comfortably with your camera and cup of coffee inside your home, or setting up your blind and tripod outside in the yard.

Our property is an official Certified Wildlife Habitat®. The template for designing a wildlife habitat in your own yard is available from the National Wildlife Federation at this link. An essential component of this program is avoiding the use of chemical poisons. The diversity of plant life in our yard attracts many different species of wildlife that, in turn, help keep away damaging pests. Non-chemical, integrated pest management solutions are used when a pest problem is discovered. For a good resource on safe alternatives to the use of chemical pesticides, see this link.

Photographing Indigo Buntings and The Illusion of Seeing Blue

June 5, 2014Buntingsnmckown

Photographing the Blues of the Male Indigo Bunting

I came across this male indigo bunting early in the morning when I pulled my car into a parking lot at the Allegan State Game Area. The camera was already propped atop the bin I keep in the passenger seat. I immediately shut down the car, opened the passenger door window, positioned myself and the lens toward the bunting, and started shooting. It turned out to be an excellent photo shoot with a very cooperative bird.

It lasted maybe 2 minutes. During this short time, the blue, purple, and aqua hues of his feathers glimmered in the sun. Every time this male bunting flew to a different perch and gave me a different angle of his little body to photograph, his colors seemed to change hues.

Photo of Male Indigo Bunting — Different Shades of Blue, Purple and Aqua on this Male Indigo Bunting.
ISO 400; f/9.0; 1/1000 Second

Structural Color is Different From Pigmented Color

It started me thinking about something my Catholic school teacher told me a long time ago. Blue pigment is very rare in the animal world. You may think you are seeing true blue in a bird, but it’s probably an illusion.

Of course she was right. Indigo buntings are actually brown and black. They are not “true blue” because there are no blue pigments in the feathers of indigo buntings, or any other birds who appear to be blue. The different shades of blue that we see in these photos are a trick of light.

Why We See and Photograph Indigo Bunting Blues

Indigo buntings (and all other birds of blue) are unable to manufacture blue pigments. Pigment is what gives us true color. We see blue only because of the reflective structure of the indigo bunting’s feathers. When light waves fall on his feathers, the feather structure breaks the different colors of the light apart. Only blue is reflected back out. (The other colors of visible light are absorbed by the feathers.)

The various shades of blue on the male indigo bunting appear with light, (the more light, the more intense the blues) and disappear at night, when there’s no light reflecting off the bird and back to the viewer’s eyes.

Telling the difference between pigmented color and structural color is not difficult. If the feather color seems even and doesn’t change as you look at it from different angles, it’s probably pigmented. If the feathers seem to dazzle and change hues when you view them from different angles, it’s most likely “structural color” -a consequence of the way the feathers are bouncing and reflecting light.

Photo of Female Indigo Bunting — Female Indigo Bunting- Looking Rather Ragged. Just A Touch of Blue.
ISO 3200; f/8; 1/1000 Second

Photo of Juvenile Indigo Bunting — Juvenile Indigo Bunting
ISO 500; f/8.0; 1/800 Second

For More Information About Structural Colors

If you are interested in reading more about structural colors, I recommend this article: Why Most Animals are Not True Blue by Steven D. Faccio, a conservation biologist at this LINK.

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