Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Little Bird


One of the main reasons why I bought a telephoto lense for my camera was so that I could get better pictures of birds. I'm still learning how to use the lense so that the pictures come out okay, and I'm just beginning to get some decent shots with it.

It's kind of irritating to have to learn to use my camera all over again, but the final results will hopefully be very satisfying for me. Today I took a big step forward in learning to get better shots. The one good thing about this new lense is that I'm able to get shots that look a little closer to my subjects.

This was actually the first day I had a good opportunity to really look for birds. There either weren't any birds that I could find or it has been raining very much. So when I finally got my chance I made sure I took it. The results were that I got a few very good shots of this little bird that was very far up in a tree.


I knew right away that the shots were going to be good. In the first days of the lense I got some shots that I thought were good, but I wasn't sure they would come out okay. This time I knew I was getting good shots. The pictures didn't look blurry on the camera's view screen, and I was reasonably sure there was no noise in the picture from the ISO being too high.

I had big plans after I got these pictures too. This little bird is one I had never seen before. I was going to go home and find out what kind it is and tell you all about it. I thought it should be halfway easy. I use a few online bird guides that help a lot, so I would heavily rely on them. But did they help this time?

Not even one bit! I looked and looked at so many pictures of birds that my eyes hurt. I found very many little birds that look similar to this one, but none of them were the right bird. The more I looked, the more frustrated I became. There must be at least a picture to lead me in the right direction. But there  was nothing at all. So even though I got some pictures of this nice looking little bird, I can't tell you what kind it is.


In the end the only thing that really matters is that I got these pictures and I had fun doing it. What more could you really ask but to look up into a tree and see a little bird that you've never seen before? It was actually a thrilling experience when I did it.

One of these days I'll find out what this bird is and I'll share my findings with you, but until then I'm just going to enjoy the pictures and enjoy the fact that I got them all by myself. And while we're all waiting for bird identification you can have fun voting in the new poll.

27 comments:

  1. Interesting looking bird! Glad to know that you are started to get used to your tele lens Ratty!

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  2. Hi Ratty. Glad you are enjoying the world of the zoom lens- I couldn't live without mine!

    Those are great pictures of a gorgeous little bird but I don't know what it is I'm afraid. I tend to upload my pictures to Flickr a lot and there are loads of bird identification groups on there that love to help the likes of us.

    Keep shooting :)

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  3. What a cute little bird with beautiful colors! I need a telephoto lens to play around with..

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  4. I'm beginning to wish I had cool camera equipment to play around with....maybe a Christmas wish?!?!?!

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  5. that is a very cute little bird. i have never seen one like that, i wonder what it is. you are getting pretty good with your new lenses ratty, thanks for sharing these pics and your wonderful adventure! have a great day...hugz!

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  6. I find one of the vote looking for the boss in the forest. You are funny at the first, the one who follow looks great as well.

    My zoom lens is not good enough for bird shooting. Sigh...

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  7. I find one of the vote looking for the boss in the forest. You are funny at the first, the one who follow looks great as well.

    My zoom lens is not good enough for bird shooting. Sigh...

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  8. cute little bird! your new toy does wonders, glad you get to explore more...

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  9. Well it's a pretty little bird anyway. Great shots. You're doing good with the new lens.

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  10. I think I know! It's a nuthatch! There are a couple of different kinds but one is gray and black with a white neck and chest. One clue is sometimes, you'll see them heading down the trunk head first and they peck a lot sort of like woodpeckers.

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  11. Here, check this image
    http://presidentavenue.com/yardbirds/white-breasted_nuthatch.jpg
    since you were seeing it from such a low perspective, you were mainly seeing it's white bottom and not so much the gray and black back maybe?

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  12. Great shots! That little guy sure is tiny. Looks like it had been a great day. Thanks for sharing your adventure :)

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  13. Is that a nuthatch? Nice photos though--I always enjoy your photos, Ratty!

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  14. I am not sure what it is either...
    My camera has a built in zoom to 18X optical, but I also bought an "add on" tele lens...it is giving me problems too..maybe I will try to lower the ISO..I am getting blue rims on subjects.What setting are you putting the ISO with the added zoom? Any help you could give me would be great.
    Oh, and I can't seem to post any of the comments today on Blogger. Are you having this problem too?

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  15. I'm going to answer these a little bit out of order today, and it will take me a few times, because there are a few of you who I want to get to right away. I'm determined to reply to all your comments though.
    -

    @The Retired One
    I would love to have a built in zoom of 18x. Mine is only 4x. I am now keeping my ISO no higher than 250. That seems to work okay for me. I read that even the best cameras can't handle much more if you zoom out very far.

    I've had no problem with commenting today so far, but Blogger's commenting system is always messed up in some way. It should work better for you soon.
    -

    @WillOaks Studio
    Thank you very much! It is indeed a nuthatch! You identified it perfectly. It was pecking sort of like a woodpecker, just like you said. The field guides I use only showed a different kind of nuthatch, and it didn't look like this one. After seeing the picture you pointed me to, and checking Google Images, I found the same bird. Thanks.
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    @Lin
    Thanks. It is a nuthatch. I just saw a few pictures of more of them. I knew it was probably a common type of bird, I just couldn't find it.

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  16. Those are lovely shots. I'd love to get back to my photography but the cost of the good equipment keeps me using my little digital camera. Maybe when the kids are out of the house?

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  17. He is absolutely adorable. I don't know what he is but he looks a mix of bluejay and maybe bluebird? I don't really know but he is unique and adorable. Thanks for sharing him :)

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  18. I think you have captured this little Nuthatch pretty well Ratty. I love the Nuthatches. They have this little sound that is so cute. I have called mine and he will come closer. I have a 12X zoom on my camera but now wish I had a 24!! Ha!

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  19. Great shots Ratty. My Mom loves bird watching so I sent her the post to read.

    Just to let you know, I'm not using Entrecard anymore.

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  20. Ratty-I wish I could get some pleasing results with my new Canon 55-250mm IS lens.

    This especially applies to small birds (which because of the distance they will tolerate your presence) tend to require a fair bit of image cropping.

    So far many of my cropped images tend to come out slightly less than sharp.

    Anyway its fun practicing to try and get it right. perhaps I need to slow down the camera speed?

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  21. He is a cute little fellow, great shots Ratty. Getting good pictures of birds is hard to do. I had a very pretty flicker all lined up for a shot today and a second before I triggered the shutter off he flew. So I will just rely on you for the bird photos.

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  22. Great photos! My grandaughter loves looking in the "bird book" trying to identify birds she sees in the back yard. She's 5 yo so as long as it is close she thinks she has found it! Makes her happy.

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  23. Mmmmm..hard to tell..could it be a woodpecker..

    I want a new camara now hahahah..

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  24. Nice photo's Ratty, I keep seeing a little yellow bird around here, but I'm never quick enough to get my camera, it's odd seeing this particular colored bird around my area.

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  25. I love your pics, keep up the great work!

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  26. It is a white-breasted nuthatch. You can find video and photos here. http://www.northrup.org/photos/nuthatch/
    I love your blog.

    Armeda
    I am annon. because I can't ever log in. Dumb since my e-mail is fine.

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  27. I agree, white-breasted nuthatch. You should hear them lots! They sound like a busy signal beeper on an older phone.

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