This series of photos shows what I struggle with all the time. Not all birds are willing to pop out on a branch for a photo, so I find myself shooting between twigs, branches, leaves, and at birds "on the fly."
Why bother? Well many, many of these partial images of birds have snagged some rarities. I have frequently pestered birders with a wealth of knowledge and experience to help me identify therm.
The images here are just a sample of some of the challenging shots. Among them are notable birds: Vireo, Northern Parula and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and what else...
Here is a classic example. A distant shot of a small bird nestled into a darned-hard area to photograph. Below is the same image enlarged. It reveals an interesting bird. Many times my blurry, distant images go unidentified.
This one is a curiosity? When I look at these shots, I often wish I could turn back time and try to get a better picture.
Early-morning pictures are often the worst. Lighting conditions are usually terrible, but that is when the best birds seem to get moving. Have I failed to report a rare bird in a timely manner? Absolutely. I can't just throw an ID out there based on some of my images without getting some help.
What if all photographers used the camera first and binoculars second? Would we have even more reports of rare birds? Who knows? The reward just might be a Yellow-throated Vireo!
Sometimes I get a series of only pieces of the bird in the hopes they can all be reassembled into one identification. This is one such series of four shots of the same bird. To date, I still don't know what it was. The pictures just sit in my archives as a reminder to take every picture I can.
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