• Feeling isolated? You're not alone.

    Join 20,000+ people who understand exactly how your day went. Whether you're newly diagnosed, self-identified, or supporting someone you love – this is a space where you don't have to explain yourself.

    Join the Conversation → It's free, anonymous, and supportive.

    As a member, you'll get:

    • A community that actually gets it – no judgment, no explanations needed
    • Private forums for sensitive topics (hidden from search engines)
    • Real-time chat with others who share your experiences
    • Your own blog to document your journey

    You've found your people. Create your free account

Birds...

mollusk said:
Woahhhh I think I had a computer sticker that was a bunch of animals (many of which were birds) by this guy!
Click to expand...
He does fantastic work.

Happy Autumn, bird lovers everywhere!
1665534729580.webp
 
Magpies where I live are very different to what most of you know as a magpie. Ours are more closely related to crows and they're the same size as a crow. Carnivorous, beautiful song voices, very intelligent.

They recognise people's faces and they remember who was nice to them and who was mean. During nesting season they get very territorial and swoop at people, but they never swoop at me.

I feed them sometimes, but not regularly, that's a trap that a lot of people fall into. If you're feeding these birds every day and then one day you forget they get angry and resentful. I throw a few scraps into my garden from time to time, enough to get them to check there regularly but never enough to form a dependency. They love grated cheese.

Magpie.webp
 
And one of my own pics, a lucky shot of a Magpie Goose. Their meat is black, and a little bit greasy, but very tasty.

Magpie Goose.webp
 
birds are great! i think my favorites are crows (for their smarts and rattling noises) and herons (for their beauty and stillness), but i also love mockingbirds (florida's state bird, their songs are wonderful!)

story: there were always sparrows at this chipotle near my college, and they would go around looking for bits of food, often hanging around the trash cans for whatever fell out. once, i saw a crow hop up onto the edge of the can and start pulling food out and dropping it, and the sparrows came and took it! i like to think the crow was helping them scavenge, but they were probably just poachers!
 
Outdated said:
And one of my own pics, a lucky shot of a Magpie Goose. Their meat is black, and a little bit greasy, but very tasty.

View attachment 86713
Click to expand...

Omg, if I saw that flying over me, I would be terrified!!! It looks like one of those giant birds from folklore, like a thunderbird or something.
It's an incredibly cool shot though!

I didn't realize birds could have black meat. That's really interesting. That would look weird in a KFC bucket, lol
 
Luca said:
That is one of the most adorable creatures I have ever seen in my life. What's it called?
Click to expand...

That one's only a baby, a Red Backed Fairy Wren.

It just lobbed in front of me and I got that photo, then it's mother attacked me. They're so tiny, smaller than humming birds.
 
I loved photographing birds, it's quite a challenge because they won't sit still for you. A lot of them see the camera lens as a giant predatory eye, as soon as you point at them they're gone.

It's even more of a challenge when you can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on expensive lenses, and all of my best photos came about through luck rather than planning. Under a forest canopy is very low light, you're using a long lens because you can't get close to the birds, and you need a fast shutter speed to help account for camera wobble. it's not easy but a lot of very relaxing fun.

Mostly. When I was tracking those fairy wrens I was totally focused on them and not paying enough attention to everything else around me, and I got swooped by a Whistling Kite. I was standing underneath it's nest.

I dove into some bushes and wiped the sweat from my brow, then discovered it wasn't sweat, it was blood. That kite had struck me but I never felt it, 3 neat slices in my scalp.

@Luca The bird on the left in your post is exactly the critters I was trying to photograph, I never got as good a shot as the one you posted though.
 
Outdated said:
I loved photographing birds, it's quite a challenge because they won't sit still for you. A lot of them see the camera lens as a giant predatory eye, as soon as you point at them they're gone.

It's even more of a challenge when you can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on expensive lenses, and all of my best photos came about through luck rather than planning. Under a forest canopy is very low light, you're using a long lens because you can't get close to the birds, and you need a fast shutter speed to help account for camera wobble. it's not easy but a lot of very relaxing fun.

Mostly. When I was tracking those fairy wrens I was totally focused on them and not paying enough attention to everything else around me, and I got swooped by a Whistling Kite. I was standing underneath it's nest.

I dove into some bushes and wiped the sweat from my brow, then discovered it wasn't sweat, it was blood. That kite had struck me but I never felt it, 3 neat slices in my scalp.

@Luca The bird on the left in your post is exactly the critters I was trying to photograph, I never got as good a shot as the one you posted though.
Click to expand...

I love photographing birds too, I made a thread on here about birds that I photographed in Hawaii (just try searching in the forum search bar for "Hawaiian birds.") The photos are about a decade old and the editing isn't great but the birds are beautiful.

Getting attacked by a Kite sounds scary!! I hope you didn't need stitches or anything...

I love photography too, and my best photos are also lucky shots. I'm definitely not an expert lol but I love making art in pretty much any form.
 
Doves aren't the smartest creatures in the world but this one seemed worse than most. It must have been her first season, she spent the whole day picking sticks up but it didn't look like she knew what to do with them.
BarShoulderedDove.webp
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom