Photographing birds can be tricky, with some cooperative, some disinterested, and yet some none too happy to encounter you and your camera!
I could understand if there’s a nest of their babies nearby, but it’s been my experience with camera in hand that regardless, some birds will look at you as if you’re the dreaded stalking paparazzi.
Given that I include birds in my Animals photography gallery on The Daily Artisan website – and that I devoted an entire post Bird Words for People about a bird-themed crafting project – and also one for a project called It’s Not Gossip … A Little Bird Told Me!, one would think I have a special affection for birds.
Not so fast. Not so true.
Actually, they give me a scare when they catch you pointing a camera their way and decide to not only sabotage your hoped-for photograph but also endanger your head with a sudden swooping flyby. When this happens, it’s easy to come home with out-of-focus pictures from ducking when they’re coming at you!
Despite this sometimes reaction to a camera, birds actually can make beautiful photographs, so occasionally I will bob and weave with the best of them. But, I’ll take photographing a 1,400-pound cow (even this grumpy one) over a head-buzzing bird any day of the week!
Today I was looking through my bird photographs and pulled some together for this post. Don’t get me wrong – some of the birds you’ll see here were docile and almost friendly. It’s just not always the case.
See if you can tell from the photos which ones were naughty and which ones were nice … and remember, as with all things in life, appearances can be deceiving!
Have you ever been dive-bombed by a bird not too happy to see you?! Please comment below!
