For anyone interested. I'm not a pro photographer and just work things out so that I can get some decent bird photos. I have my deck set up for birds and taking pictures. These tips are what I manage to do with my set up. You may have to alter things perhaps to suit your set up. Here we go then. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) I don’t take photos of the birds at obvious feeders; through my years taking nature shots for competitions man made stuff was a no no. No buildings, fences, walls, bird baths and feeders were aloud. So we go to image number one, attach a perch close to the feeder. The hummingbirds will rest there. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) When they get used to the branch, you can be ready to take a photo and crop out the feeder. The first picture is a male Anna's and the other the female. Yes, they are here all the year, snow and all.
If you don’t have a convenient branch that you can use, you can secure one in a place where you can watch the birds. A nice lichen covered twig is the prop that I used. I secured it below one of those suet baskets. On the back side, I smeared some suet mixture that I push into holes in logs. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) The birds that come to the suet basket also see this other food source. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) They may land on the branch before going to the mixture or when they take a breather. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) You can then take your pictures. Or just enjoy the birds. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden )
If you have an old Christmas wreath, or any decoration of that type, you can take some interesting pictures. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) Hang it up outside and hide a few peanuts or berries that will attract the birds. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) When the birds come for the berries you can take a couple of pictures. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) Crop the photo so as to make a nice Christmas style photo. You can always start in January for next year. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) Add some decoration and you may get a different bird. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden )
A nice background and a pleasant surrounding creates a very nice photo. You can provide this. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) If you have a log feeder that attracts a lot of birds, you can get some decent bird photos by setting up a little nature scene. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) Here we have a small branch with some berries on it attached near to the feeder. You can cut away a leaf or two to make a place for the birds to perch. A bushtit is already in the place where we want to take the photos. It gets quite busy as the birds rest there till they go to the feeder. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) When a bird settles on the branch, the photo opportunity arrives. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) You can keep changing the background branch with other things like this witch hazel flowering branch.
A few birds like peanuts in the shell, jays are one of them. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) They quickly take them from a feeding table. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) One way to get some natural looking shots without showing tables etc. is to hide a few. Push a couple into some old log crevice. They go looking for them. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) When they find them, they will keep coming back looking for more, they don’t usually eat them straight away, preferring to hide them elsewhere. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) While they look for more, you can manage to take a couple of pictures.
That's a superb picture of the Jay swooping down to grab one of the peanuts. The rest aren't too shabby either.
You really understand the bird's mindset Kildale. I think you should choose a user title to reflect this!
Thank you Frank. Today we have one for Christmas. Although you can alter the prop that I have in this series. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) I fastened a sprig of holly to a piece of trellis, I have a tree in the garden that the birds provided a few years ago. Remove a leaf or two for the landing area. Smear a bit of peanut butter on the back of the leaves, out of site if you can. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) The first bird was the kinglet, it hasn't been coming here very long so this is recent. Wait for it to pose. ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden ) Then you can take your pictures. You can change the prop to get different pictures.
I would never have thought to use peanut butter. Now that's something I'll be trying out for myself. :-D
