Page 14 - Backyard Bird Photography: How to Attract Birds to Your Home and Create Beautiful Photographs

If you stand over a bird, the bird will feel threatened and may fly away, but if you lower

yourself down to his level and remain still, he will consider you as just another part of the
environment and he will relax enough for you to get some good photographs. This is the
case with my ground feeder in my garden in Los Angeles. I place a small pile of mixed
birdseed on the soil by the side of my brick patio, and I wait for the birds to come in from
the bushes and take the birdseed. (On many occasions, the birds that are eating this

birdseed have hardly taken any notice of me as I photograph my camera setup while
standing above them.) It’s very gratifying to get so close to the place with the birds that
they send you the message that it’s OK with them that you’re around. This means that they
have gotten used to the reflection of the lens of the camera, and all of those clicking sounds
they hear when the shutter goes off. They have determined that all of this confusion will
not threaten their survival, so they relax and start eating. Any sudden movement, however,
would send these birds scurrying back into the bushes.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird and feeder

Getting close to songbirds is one thing, but how do you get close enough to a
hummingbird so that you can photograph him from three feet away? It’s not easy, but it
can be done.

As with the songbirds, you want to start your photography from farther away from the
bird, perhaps ten to fifteen feet away. In Vermont, I used this technique with the Ruby-
throated Hummingbird in the summer of 2012. I had not been in this garden since June of

2009, at which time I had only a few visits by the hummingbird to the feeder and, hence,
only a few photographs.