Thread: Show Birds

Great protective coloration!

Orange Park4 by Winginkris, on Flickr

Orange Park 3 by Winginkris, on Flickr

Orange Park 2 by Winginkris, on Flickr

Orange Park 1 by Winginkris, on Flickr

Barrie/Paul

SW France - today

presumably this is just a Common Buzzard - but it was a very big bird

There are lots of Buzzards around here - but this is the biggest I've seen!

(but we are only max 130 miles from the Pyrenees - as the crow flies!)

hmm I don't fancy that tail much for a Buzzard let alone the fingers and rather plain undersides ... I might wonder about a Black Kite (I haven't looked at Collins yet mind you) ... now watch Barrie shoot me down in flames ... hmm come to think of it haven't seen that gentleman recently, hope he's OK ...

Thanks Paul

(for a C Buzzard) - the tail got me plus maybe the head and wingspan - it's the only image that I have - shot off quickly although it was high - but it looks to only have 5 "fingers" - (Buzzard?)

as I said we have loads of Buzzards around here but this looked bigger and different!

A couple from this evening

I'd been waiting and I was at the perfect distance, but the light was annoying and the "models" would not get into the correct position ....... grrrh

Mr & Mrs C Redstart - one of my favourite birds

both handheld - First image is 1/320 sec at f4 - difficult to get sharpe - and the second image is just turning 90 degrees moments later which gave 1/4000 sec at f4, therefore sharpe image no problem

Spot metering on first image also gives problems as sun was on the bird ......... and I asked him to move away from the leaf but "no joy"





and "junior" I think




another of the male



another from today - another beautiful bird

Paul

Black Kite seems to be the one ......... they should be around here at this time of the year
I now also remember the call, which caused me to look up ........peee..e.......e - quite shrill and vocal

I believe they're pretty widespread over Southern Europe and North Africe .
They do appear up here as well, in fact I saw one a few years ago just off the A30 West of Salisbury.

Paul/Barrie

Black Kite

he or they have been around most of the afternoon, circling high above our house, the valley in front of it and the vines behind it ......... each tour would last a few minutes then I would loose sight of it for a minute or so ......... then it would come back

Only ever a solitary bird, (I only ever saw one bird in the sky at one time), ......... but I am now not sure if there are more than 1 ........... my reason is explained in the following images which are BIG crops as the bird was way above and the lighting was constantly changing as we had cloudy skies today ....... plus LR adjustments to get as much detail as possible

In the first two images the bird appears to have 5 "fingers" - in the last two it has six "fingers"

do you think that they are all the same bird ........... the first two images were taken at approx 17:30 and the second two at approx 18:30

male and female?

Taken at approx 17:30 - 5 fingers





Taken at approx 18:30 - 6 fingers



taken 4 mins after above


This image shows distance the birds were away - taken with 300mm lens

Bill,

I would be happy to call the last one a Black Kite, however I see a Buteo type bird (Buzzard) in number 3 with its dark carpel patch and then the pale area at the base of the primaries with the three or four lines across it, very suggestive of Honey Buzzard. Also the wing proportions appear different, ie length to width and length of inner wing and outer wing. Numbers 1 and 2 also are very suggestive of Buzzard type.

Barrie