General > Photography Section
Hanging Out With Teenage Birds....
RedRobin:
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A warm sunny evening, so the kitchen window was wide open... I came into the kitchen and detected movement and immediately went on full alert! Turned out to be a young bird of the feathered variety, and a very pretty one. Fortunately I'm used to handling birds of all sizes and used to keep free-flight Macaws, so I knew to keep calm and all my movements slow.
^ The water in the pan was still hot and so I was worried a terrible drowning might occur.
^ Easily identifiable as a juvenile Goldfinch.
She/He was very calm and without a racing heartbeat and so easily allowed me to gently spread a wing and check the bird over for possible injury. No damage whatsoever so it was time to release back in the wild.
Once in the garden I took her/him to a bush and after hopping onto a branch I was then delighted to see proper flight upwards into the biggest tree.
I see a great variety of birds in my wildlife garden but the limitations of my Fuji 200EXR camera rarely allow a good enough photo. It's good to know that the Goldfinches are about again as they seriously declined in the 1970's and 80's.
MPS:
And poached Goldfinch for dinner! :party: :laugh:
RedRobin:
--- Quote from: MPS on September 05, 2010, 05:02:04 pm ---
Wow!! :congrats: What technique do you use to get a bird to come on your hand? (ooh er, Should I rephrase that?) :grin:
--- End quote ---
....It's a bit like Horse whispering - I used to work with Horses a lot doing Natural Horsemanship where most, not all, horses can be controlled by body language and fingertips and not the harsh strap-them-up and show them who's boss which the British Horse Society preach. Fundamentally it's about being very calm and trusting and understanding that most animals/birds are hard-wired into sensing fear and fleeing for their survival. You have to be extremely patient to gain trust. It took me over 6 months of being literally alongside my first Macaw before she trusted me enough to be fed by hand and finally climb onto me. From that moment on I was given complete and unconditional trust and to my amazement found that other Macaws I'd never even met before gave me trust but might attack other people.
If you own dogs you'll know some of what I'm saying.
As most of us already know, females of the human species are much more complicated! But once you're allowed to be in there... :wink: :evilgrin:
Top Cat:
Great story and pics Robindoolittle. :happy2:
If only the other variety would get trapped in your kitchen without having to deploy your usual technique of ammonia and rope. :evilgrin:
stealthwolf:
What I really want to know is, if he had two hands on the bird, what was he using to hold the camera and take pictures? :scared:
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