I didn’t realize canada geese (with the exception of NZ), mute swans, and those Larus spp. ranges were so northern. Which does make my top 10 quite northern. That being said common goldeneyes are dangerously close to being knocked out of my top 10 by rock doves (Columba livia).
As I’ve joined iNat this year, the numbers are pretty small as I mostly focused on observing new species, not the same ones, so… here I am!
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How can you photograph swallows in flight? They move so fast (and I rarely see them up-close). Is there some particular camera for that? I’d love to know. Swifts (a similar looking bird) are my favorite local species, but I’ve never seen them perch, hence I have zero photos of them.
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All either easily observable species at close range or ones where I’ve had several (often unsuccesful) attempts at getting good photographs of.
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Yes! I am in YUC ( Yucatán).
None of my Orioles look the same (some have black hoods, some have just black heads, some have no black on heads, etc.).
So there are disagreements on many of the Observations and none are definitively identified to species and they all remain just at genus, and cumulatively the genus Observations made my top 10.
But they honestly likely should be represented, one or another species, because I see them daily when they alight in the Hamelia patens briefly.
A mirrorless camera with good auto focus tracking and high speed burst helps. I use a Canon R7 with RF 100-400 lens to take shots like this
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/225313386
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A bit of an eclectic mix here, mostly backyard in the US with a few European outliers. I should stake out my mom’s bird feeder again on my next trip to Germany and I’m sure I could make a few more pop into my top 10.
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Pretty happy with and not really surprised at mine at all. Bald eagles are what got me into birding so I’ve photographed them PLENTY. Happy short-eared owls made it in there too. I photograph a ton of species so it’s a bit funny I’m mostly pretty even on number of observations for them.
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Pretty standard central Europe really. Interesting that it’s not so very dissimilar to my Birdtrack top 10 recorded species, which cover a (much) longer period (columns are respectively: species, number of observations and number of locations)
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Why? They’re cute!
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@wvbirder you might enjoy this thread.
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How come Boat-tailed grackles aren’t in your top ten?
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Lots of common Midwestern US birds! I think the majority of the Canada Goose and Mourning Dove obs come from pictures of feathers I find. Robins too. A lot of these also visit my feeder.
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Photography is one of my less intense hobbies, so take my reply with a grain of salt, lol!
High shutter speed has been the biggest element for me to capture them in movement. Times of day with lots of light (but not directly overhead!) makes that a lot easier to finegle with my lower end mirrorless camera.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/229416693
Being itty bitty makes it pretty tough to track them with significant zoom or get them in focus while they’re zooming by. I’ve found a few bridges where I can overlook the water where they hunt bugs, which narrows down where they’ll be swooping. I find it easiest to line up a shot on birds that are coming towards me. Focus tracking mode can also be a lifesaver, but I’m still not great at using it.
But my favorite barn swallow shots thus far came from stalking out where all the babies were perched! The sit pretty still waiting for dinner and it’s MUCH easier to keep my focus trained on them and wait for mom or dad to come by. They were even kind enough to perch right next to a bench one day :)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/229608591
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… I only have a mobile camera. Thanks though! If I ever buy a camera for photography, I’ll buy one of those.