I researched Cedar Waxwings because my usual observations of them are when they are located at the tops of tall trees on bare branches.  The All About Birds site listed various berry trees that are favorite foods of these beautiful birds.  A local photographer mentioned a park where there are serviceberry trees.  Sitting on a bench in view of the trees, I could hear the bzeee calls from high up in the trees around me.  It wasn't long before the Cedar Waxwings were flying down for the berries.  I only managed to photograph them in half-sun/half-shade but they were fun to watch.

One of my favorite birds is the Brown-headed Barbet. I loved these birds' songs long before I knew who they were, got into birding, or tryed my hand at photographing birds. I find them to be pretty shy though. In early March, I discovered one pounding away making a nest on a dead tree near Thalangama Lake, where I try to walk every day. It was so engrossed in what it was doing that it didn't even care that I was nearby. Then quarantine came, and for two months I couldn't check back on the site. Once we were free to return, and walk (with masks), I checked again over and over, and figured too much time had passed. Then one morning I spotted one of the barbets coming out of the hole, so I kept checking back, keeping a distance (bridge camera with 1200 zoom). Saw it a few times, and nothing again for the last couple of weeks, so I thought maybe the time had passed. This morning I saw one of them again, on a branch near the hole! There aren't a lot of good books on the birds of Sri Lanka, but I do have a couple I keep on hand and reference frequently. It's often the case - as in this instance - that I witness something and then learn more about it. Primary breeding season is February to July (fits my timeframe), and "the bird, working solitarily, hammers and pecks out a hole in a soft-wooded dead stump or branch" (G.M. Henry, A Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka, p. 324). I also learned from the guide that the calls I love so much are the pair keeping in touch with one another from some distance.

The Brown Pelican (Pelicanus occidentalis) is a common species today along all our coast but it was on the Endangered Species list  from 1970 to 2009 and became extinct in some states.  The cause was the use of the now banned pesticide DDT which caused pelican eggs to become so thin they would fracture before the embryo was fully developed.  There has been an enormous conservation effort to restore this magnificent species, especially so in Santa Barbara where some of my birding colleagues have done regular brown pelican counts.  They are very sociable birds both congregating and flying together often in large groups.  I know that there is a breeding colony on Anacapa Island off the southern California coast.  It is an enormous bird and because of its size it is easier to photograph in flight than most other smaller birds.  The birds I've been seeing lately along with the Black Skimmers are juveniles, the adult being mostly gray and white.  It is fun to watch them when they dive head first into the ocean to capture fish.

I spotted a Great Blue Heron last week in a nearby marsh, and was inspired by this class to learn more about this species. I started paying attention to the tide charts for my area, and read about GBH feeding habits, and am now trying to use that to predict when he'll be there again. The last few mornings I saw him there 1 to 4 hours after low tide, but this morning I was there an hour before low tide and he wasn't there. As I was leaving I saw him in a different spot, not in the marsh, but way out at the tide line of the beach. Now I am wondering if he goes up to the marsh only after low tide. Will have to keep checking to find out. This photo was taken four hours after low tide.  

I live a block from Alice Keck Park and walk my dog there often in the mornings.  One day I noticed a juvenile Great Blue Heron in the pond.  I walked home and got my camera, then waited for about an hour while watching this bird's movements.  Suddenly he spotted and caught a large fish and held it in his bill.   The fish was obviously too large for him to swallow, so he had to drop it.  I shot multiple frames. I often bird in the evenings at the Andree Clark Bird Refuge in Santa Barbara.  I was seated at the third viewing platform when a young Black Crowned Night Heron flew in and landed on the bench not more than 15 feet away from me.  He was quite comfortable sitting there and watching me for several minutes.  It was a wonderful experience!  These birds are breeding in this area as I have seen several juveniles there as well. Dika Golovatchoff

I shot this goldfinch feeding on a sweet-gum ball in mid-January this year at a city-owned swamp near my house.  The behavior surprised me because I had always though of sweet-gum balls as being useless outdoor Legos. So I did a bit of research and found out that sweet-gum balls provide a critical source of food in mid-winter to several species, particularly goldfinches, at a time when other food sources are very scarce.  It gave me a new appreciation for the role of the sweet-gum tree in the environment, that I wouldn't have known without the experience of taking this picture.  

The online resources are such a great help!  I have loved watching and photographing Great Blue Herons for some time.  We are blessed to live on a small lake in Florida where we have a fair amount of birds and the occasional American Alligator.  This GBH was fishing for breakfast one recent morning and I was able to capture a few frames.

I, too, am intimidated by the quality of the photographs submitted thus far. They encourage me to improve. I try to be a faithful student and follow directions, so I decided to research two birds that I had hoped to see yesterday. They were the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher and the Black-capped Gnatcatcher. Both had been seen on on the slopes of Montosa Canyon which includes their natural habitat of isolation, slopes and mesquite trees. Unfortunately on a gray day, I neither heard nor saw them. It was uncharacteristically quiet in the canyon. Eager to fulfill my assignment, I switched to the only birds I was hearing, Bell's Vireos and Northern Cardinals. My Bell's photos were very poor and the Cardinal was pretty far away. It was the best I could do. I did my research but not on the bird I photographed, the commonly seen Cardinal.

I very much appreciate this lesson on responsibility. I have a question from a later lesson. You recommend using a teleconverter. My camera is a Nikon D5300. My long lense is a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 80-400 1:4.5-5.6G. What teleconverter do you recommend ? Thank you very much 🙏   Phil Fitzpatrick bgaldoflife@yahoo.com

This was my first successful sighting and close observation of a bird! Common name: Common Wagtail Scientific name: Motacilla alba I recently began observing birds in my surroundings. This was one of the commonly encountered species in the garden and surroundings with ample fresh water. Observation: This species appeared almost daily and at different times of the day. One interesting observation was (correct me if I am wrong), that it tried to keep its radius of food capture constant. When I tried to go near it (15 feet away), it flew away to the next perch, whoch was about 30 feet away. However, as I kept still and sat there for a while, it returned to its radius of food search. Also, it seemed to be a pretty confident bird. I also saw a second one, which it tried to follow. I do not clearly understand if it was an opposite gender, since the information about the bird says that it breeds throughout the year, but especially from July till December. I think the research I did at the beginning helped me to know which species are commonly found and I can hope to see most of the times during the day. This also means that I had more chances of spotting it. I look forward to learning and applying it in the field. Thanks, Siddhesh

Lately I had been trying to photograph the birds on a garden in Mexico City. I like the bronzed cowbird, for its              red eyes and it´s mating display, the male will it inflate itself and hover above the female. This bird lives all year round here, I didn´t know it is a brood parasite.

I've primarily been photographing from our porch and yard, but I was certainly surprised by how uncommonly beautiful the common grackle is.  I've taken to peeking over our fence (with the help of an upturned bucket) into the neighboring field where they tend to feed so as not to startle them! I've been lucky once or twice and already been waiting on the porch when they've landed closer, and managed to catch this stunning male on our arch! I've also started taking my camera with me when I bike, so I can stop by one of the local ponds and capture the wildlife there. Even a few minutes away, the difference in diversity is striking.

After my first less than thrilling early morning sit spot, I went to the bay and carefully and slowly  zig-zagged down a pier to sit for awhile. Although blazing hot, it turned out to be a much better spot for this time of year. I was able to practice trying to shoot birds in flight, diving for fish, but I realize that I need to work on my lighting as many of the birds just blended into the background - the sky was a bright light blue. I am really looking forward to delving into the next lessons on how to use the setting on my camera to optimize my outings. My best pictures were still shots of laughing gulls. I was using my 200-500mm lens so I was able to get some close up shots without interfering with their environment. My favorite shot - gull yoga - tree pose.

I went last week to a park where Wood Ducks are reliably found. To my surprise there were no males, but I found a female with her babies sitting on a log. In my excitement, I moved too quickly and the family left the log. I have the Canon 7D MKII and always forget that the exposure meter is awkwardly placed to the far right, out of view with a normal look through the viewfinder. So I had to lighten up the image. It takes some effort and a little time to see the exposure meter in this camera. I didn't even know it was there for the longest time. I did find a bird that looked like a wood duck but not exactly so I took a shot. I'm guessing it's a juvenile male because the markings match up with the male markings but the rest of the plumage colors are not there yet. It stumped me for quite a while. I can't even find a photo to match mine yet.

I found out that my area is a stop along the way during the winter spring migration of the sandhill. Each year in March the small town near the area holds a festival so getting to the wildlife area is a nightmare. So I went there days prior and there were only 2 photographers and 17,000 Sandhills.

While hiking I suddenly heard some Titmice making quite a fuss and I heard the high pitched call of a hawk. When I stopped to look and listen I realized there were 3 juvenile Cooper's Hawks calling for the parent to bring in dinner. I didn't have my camera on me because it was a new park and I was unsure of how safe it would be to carry an expensive camera around. I ran back to my car and came back knowing that based on past experience the juvenile birds would most likely remain in the area. When I got back to the spot the calling had stopped but in a short amount of time I was able to spot two of them in a tree. I took up a spot and waited. Soon they started calling out and I knew a parent was probably in the area. I had hoped to get a pic of the parent but he/she flew in pretty fast and just dropped the meal on a large limb and flew off. The two juveniles flew over and the one in this photo was faster and ended up with the meal. In my experience I usually hear the birds before seeing them and I have become familiar with types of calls such as alarm, calling for a mate, and even alerting to a parent in the area.

I have loved Sandhill Cranes for their exotic appearance.  In the past I've driven to watch them in fields where they have been known to congregate in migration season, and I have also been thrilled to come across a few or large number of them unexpectedly.  They are one of the few birds I can identify by voice as they fly overhead.  I used to think they only passed through my midwest area to more northern summer grounds, but my research shows that they spend the summer here, too.  I have been seeing them more often.  I was taking a walk through a forest preserve I had not visited before, and I came upon two sandhill cranes in a field.  I was surprised how close they let me come, as they seemed oblivious to cars nearby and to me.  I didn't want to scare them, so I stayed about 50 away.  

I've always known that there have been some Black-crested Titmice that love to forage in my backyard. They tend to stick around almost all year, too. I occasionally spot one of the birds jumping around in this large oak tree nearby my patio. After doing some research on their behaviors, I discovered that these acrobatic little guys that will cling upside-down to find insects to eat. After hearing some chirps on a gray spring afternoon, I quietly set up outside and waited for the bird to come for me. I eventually caught sight of the titmouse, and sure enough, after some waiting, it started hanging upside down. I was even able to capture this photo!

I chose to look for the Rock Sparrow, Petronia petronia (a life-list bird for me).  This is a bird that is found in rocky habitats throughout the Mediterranean, but has a north-south movement throughout the year in Israel.  Since we were in lockdown when it was in my area in the Negev desert in the spring, I went to Mt Hermon (3000 m) where it is easily found in June and July. I used three resources: eBird, Oiseaux birds and Wikipedia.  As to the description, eBird records it as “odd-looking, chunky, sparrow-like bird”, whereas Oiseaux is “very similar to the female House Sparrow”.  In my unschooled opinion it just looks like a sparrow, not odd at all.  Further to its appearance, a yellow spot on the throat is rarely visible in the field (eBird) which, indeed, is not visible in my photographs. However (Oiseaux) record that both females and males prefer mates with bright yellow spots.  It does have a streaked breast, brown head and pale yellow eyebrows. All sources were in agreement with it being found in arid, rocky habitats with short grass and Oiseaux has it as a “typical Mediterranean species”.  It feeds on seeds and berries throughout the year and insects when feeding nestlings. They are reported to nest in crevices in rocks or walls; so, it was very odd when I saw it at the mouth of a pipe. At first I thought it just landed there; this pipe was about 12 cm in diameter, stuck in the ground and at about a meter in height bent at a 45º angle. Since there is no sexual dimorphism I didn’t know if it was a male or female bring insects to the nestlings.  It perched in the open and had an upright stance holding the insect in its mouth.  I moved away to allow it to freely fly to its nest in the pipe.

I had no idea that, when doing this type of research, my chances of getting better poses and pictures would increase more and more. I'm really excited to go to the field to train what we have learned, but unfortunately I have to wait until the weekend where we have a country house. The bird I chose is a very beautiful, interesting, and especially agitated hummingbird which fascinates me. I have been watching and listening to this bird for the past two years and, among all the hummingbirds that we have in our mountains, this is the species that most amuses me. It is very difficult to take a good picture of him while in movement, as he is especially fast when compared to others who live in our area.

We have just passed the nesting season for hummingbirds in San Diego, but earlier this year I wanted to capture one of the many hummers that come to my feeders gathering nesting material.  Each year I provide kapok nesting material from a couple of locations.  This image was taken in my front yard with the afternoon sun not quite reaching into the area that is the background.  By keeping the exposure set on the bird, I was able to create the dark background I was after.  My camera, on tripod, was set up with some foliage for cover and I used a long lens to stay back, but feel up close.  This is a female Anna's Hummingbird.