Deck Birds

[lassa8]

I've set up some sticks/logs from the woods behind our house on my deck so that I have a 'natural' shooting environment when the birds visit my feeders. All photos shot with either a 400mm or 70-200mm, depending on where I put my photo blind.

Northern Cardinal


Pine Siskin


Downy Woodpecker


American Robin (this one was taken with a 50mm macro lens....the robin flew into a window on the front of the house and I photographed it while protecting it from the neighborhood cats. It eventually flew off under its own power).

 

[shefjr]

Those are some nice captures. I wonder why you chose to crop so much of the cardinal?

 

[laynea24]

Nicely done! I'm guessing the cardinal was shot with the prime since you cropped his/her tail? Better the tail than the chest, I think!

 

[lassa8]

The cardinal was at the minimum close focus distance for my 70-200mm, which also had a 1.4x teleconverter (shot at 280mm). I basically had time to swing the camera and fire one shot before it flew off, and I didn't get a chance to zoom out. Later, I did get to zoom out on some cardinals, and I didn't like them as much. They seemed too....boring. A photo anyone could get. Here's a female at 215mm from later in the morning.

 

[MSnowy]

Nice. I like the Siskin the most in the first post. The female Cardinal is very nice also.