Thursday, March 1, 2012

Military Macaw (Ara militaris)

I got my second opportunity to see such brightly feathered birds in one day - the same day that I saw the Hyacinth Macaws.  Loud and raucous like their blue cousins, I found the pair too busy stripping the tree of its bark and not really paying much attention to each other.  So much so that I couldn't get a shot of them together despite my hanging around them for a while in the hopes they'd oblige me.

They appeared to be very curious birds by nature and really intent on what they were doing.  I'm not sure whether they were actually eating the bark or just pecking at them in an attempt to gather nutrients.

Again, as with the Hyacinth Macaws, I had a great challenge photographing these birds in extremely low light.  A long and heavy lens just didn't help and you will notice the slightly soft focus in some of the images.  This happened for mainly two reasons, though - one of course was the low shutter speed, causing the pictures to be on the softer side, and the other one is the extreme application of noise reduction in post that softened out the details a little bit as well.  However, I only got a handful of shots and these were some  of them.

IMG_9761.jpg by Shiny Dewdrop

IMG_9758.jpg by Shiny Dewdrop


IMG_9757.jpg by Shiny Dewdrop


IMG_9748.jpg by Shiny Dewdrop


IMG_9739.jpg by Shiny Dewdrop


IMG_9736.jpg by Shiny Dewdrop

Monday, February 20, 2012

Hyacinth Macaws

I visited the Montreal Biodome over the weekend and was fascinated by this pair of Hyacinth Macaws.  I heard their screams from afar, but thought that it was the pair of Military Macaws creating the ruckus.  But upon approaching the pair of Military Macaws, I realized that they weren't the only ones guilty of the loud squawks and later turned around and found this pair courting.

I had the worst light possible, being in the Rainforest region in the Biodome.  The tropical vegetation was dense and therefore, the light was scarce.  I shot these images at ISO 3200 and had to remove quite a bit of noise in Lightroom.  The angles could have been better if I didn't have to shoot in between the bobbing heads of the visitors and being careful not to bump my lens into their heads either.  Everyone seemed enthralled by this pair. Beautiful birds!  I'm definitely going back to see them again.

Hyacinth Macaw by Shiny Dewdrop

Hyacinth Macaw pair by Shiny Dewdrop

Hyacinth Macaw pair by Shiny Dewdrop

Hyacinth Macaws courting by Shiny Dewdrop

Hyacinth Macaws courting by Shiny Dewdrop

Hyacinth Macaw pair courting by Shiny Dewdrop

Hyacinth Macaw by Shiny Dewdrop


Friday, January 6, 2012

Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)

It's been ages since I posted anything about my birding activities and thought that I should set that right.  Right now, or it will be put on the back burner again!

Lighting note: I have to confess that these shots aren't very sharp because they were mostly taken from behind dirty glass windows on a fairly overcast day, or should I say late afternoon?  For the feeder shots, I used a flash which I bounced off a white board to diffuse the light on the bird and set the flash up at an angle to eliminate the reflection on the glass. The images of the birds in the trees were taken in natural light.

Male Downy Woodpecker by Shiny Dewdrop
This shot was actually a Fall shot, but the Downy Woodpecker was a bonus! :)

Since I recently hung up a suet feeder on my balcony, a male Downy Woodpecker has been a daily visitor, visiting several times a day.  I also saw a White-breasted Nuthatch on the first couple of days, but somehow haven't seen him after that.  Maybe the Downy is hogging the feeder and doesn't allow anyone else to partake of the tasty suet cake.

Downy Woodpeckers are fairly tiny birds that are primarily black and white with predominantly black upperparts, white-spotted black wing feathers, and a white back and belly.  The adult males have a red cap, which is missing in females, but the juvenile males often have a small red crown.

It can be very tricky to differentiate between the Downy and the Hairy Woodpecker.  They both look almost exactly the same except the Downy has a shorter beak than the Hairy Woodpecker, and the Hairy is slightly larger in size as well.  There is also a difference in the colouring of the tail feathers, but I find it hard to distinguish from a distance. Just to demonstrate the difference between these species, note the bill sizes in the following images:

Male Downy Woodpecker by Shiny Dewdrop
Downy Woodpecker has a shorter bill

Male Hairy Woodpecker by Shiny Dewdrop
Hairy Woodpecker has a relatively longer bill

These birds are not migratory and I have seen them all year round in the little park in front of my building.  Seeing that they visit a neighbour's feeder, I thought of getting one of my own.  And ever since then, the little birdie has been honouring me with his visits.  They primarily peck on the bark surface of trees during the summer but have to dig deeper during the winter months.  Since it's difficult to come by insects during the winter, they tend to feed on leftover berries on the trees or at backyard suet feeders, like mine.

Male Downy Woodpecker by Shiny Dewdrop

Originally, I had hung the feeder on the hook that wasn't quite visible from inside, and photographing the birds at the feeder would be difficult through a double-glass window with a screen to boot.  There were quite a few birds visiting the suet feeder, including chickadees, starlings, a nuthatch and of course the house sparrows.  I had an idea - I decided to move the feeder over to the other hook which was more visible, and I could push the mesh screen over to the other side to get a clearer view.  And there was no double-glass there. I also thought it would be really interesting to watch what the birds do with this relocation.

Very interestingly, the woodpecker flew into the balcony at the exact level at which the suet feeder had been suspended in its original location, and when he flew in he floundered and clawed the air for a second unable to find his perch!  He was very taken aback and somehow found his wings, so to speak and flew over to the wall and sat there looking very surprised. He spied the feeder at the new location within a second of course, and then flew over to it.

As I had guessed, he didn't start feeding right away - he sat there, hanging on to the feeder, looking all around him.  I was standing very close to the glass door and he definitely saw me because he sat there watching me for at least a couple of minutes.  When he perceived no threat from me, he went about warily pecking at the suet cake.  Very interesting but predictable behaviour.

Male Downy Woodpecker by Shiny Dewdrop

I'm yet to see his female counterpart and I'm wondering where she could be.  They normally nest together, but I haven't seen the female at the feeder at all. Albeit, I haven't seen her in the vicinity even during the summer months.  I have always seen the male pecking away vigorously.  Is it a case of a celibate pecker?  Hmmm!

Woodpecker with bokeh by Shiny Dewdrop

This last shot was taken when it was almost pitch dark outside and the lights had come on.  I observed this light created a nice sun-like backdrop and fired off a few shots before the bird decided to call it a day and flew home.  I wasn't thinking on my feet right then, because in hindsight I thought I should have powered down the flash and created a backlit image of the woodpecker.