Post your best bird shots!

[Kayaker72]

Beautiful shot and a bit jealous. Six at one time! That is great.

[Joel Eade]

Beautiful shot and a bit jealous. Six at one time! That is great.

Thanks! One perk of living in the woods is lots of woodpeckers ..... downside is ten tons of leaves to be dealt with annually and constant roof maintenance. Trees shed unbelievable amounts of stuff all the time!

[Kayaker72]

I believe this is a female northern harrier. But, I am a bit torn between it and a couple types of hawks that look similar.

537A9786 by kayaker72, on Flickr

537A9744 by kayaker72, on Flickr

BTW...if anyone is wondering if animal eye-AF is legit? These were hand held with serious wind gusts catching my hood and blowing my 500 mm around. It was near impossible to keep the harrier centered. Yet....I would say 90+% of the shots are in focus on the eye. Also, for what it is worth, these were electronic shutter at 20 fps.

Thanks for viewing...Brant

[Joel Eade]

Brant,

Great shots, my experience with eye AF is similar to yours, can't wait for chances at flight shots.

I think the Harrier has more of a "mask" with light colored areas around it's eyes.

I find some of these raptors difficult to ID .... this one, I think, is a Sharp Shinned Hawk


Hawkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_harrier

[Kayaker72]

I think the Harrier has more of a "mask" with light colored areas around it's eyes.

I find some of these raptors difficult to ID .... this one, I think, is a Sharp Shinned Hawk

The alternative I had been considering was a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. Interestingly, even though I can find where Massachusetts is well within the territory for Sharp Shinned Hawks, the Merlin App doesn't list it as an option, which is odd . Looking at this a bit more, Cooper's hawks and Sharp Shinned Hawks are very similar as one of the first things to pop up on a search of either is how to identify one over the other. This comparison references that Sharp Shinned hawks are closer in size to a blue jay and Cooper's hawks more like a crow. What I saw on Saturday was larger, more crow sized, so I am leaning juvenile Cooper's hawk at this point, but honestly, I have seen pictures of female N. Harriers, juvenile Sharp Shinned Hawks, and juvenile Cooper's hawks that are close. So.....

[Joel Eade]

Agree ... that's a strong possibility .... did you see the tail at all?

I think that can help sometimes.

Great photos either way!

[DavidEccleston]

That should be the next feature to build into the camera. Automatically identify what you're shooting. While we're all going by "blue-jay sized" vs. "crow-sized", and a vaguely described color marking, some AI algorithm analyzing it at 100% zoom will probably say "Well, it's got 25 feathers above each eye, not 23, so obviously it's a (insert bird here)."

[Kayaker72]

Ha! That would be a true "deep learning" feature.

BTW, I think the consensus is immature Cooper's hawk. But absolutely crazy how similar some of these are. It really does get down to 23 feathers above its eye rather than 25.

[Busted Knuckles]

Very nice

[Zach]

i think i'm getting better and bird photos!

Cedar Waxwing by Zach, on Flickr

Taking a nap by Zach, on Flickr