Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Birds in the Yard

Saturday morning I looked out and there were 10 or 12 white-winged crossbills on the ground under the bird feeder. Since they've been hanging around I figured I'd take the time to put the long telephoto lens on the camera and set it up on the tripod. Sure enough they were still there when I was ready. But as soon as I came around the side of the house they all took off and disappeared. Figures! I sat for a while hoping they'd come back but eventually I gave up. I left the camera on the tripod though in case I saw them later.

A bit later I saw they had returned. I moved very slowly around the corner of the house and this time I didn't spook them. Here's one of the females:

White-winged crossbill

Previously the male I had been seeing was more orange than red. That confused me when I was trying to identify it. But most of the males this day were the standard red. I'm not sure why the orange. A juvenile? Or a different diet? Here's one of the red males:

White-winged crossbill

And one of the orange ones for comparison:

White-winged crossbill

Again, some of them were feeding up in the tree.

White-winged crossbill

While I was at it I also took some shots of robins and chipping sparrows:

American robin

Chipping sparrow

These were all taken with my Nikon D7200, Sigma 150-600 Contemporary lens, Really Right Stuff tripod, and Jobu Designs gimbal head

For more of these photos, see all 13 as a slideshow or overview

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