White throated sparrow

[darren]

OK, so I know a bit about birds from growing up with my parents being birders. Certainly not a ton though. This bird got me excited because I didn't know what it was. Of course my mother got it over the phone witha basic description. The fat beak and yellow in front of the eyes did it. Evidently I don't know the basic birds. Darn, I thought I knew more...oh well, the first piece of knowledge is to know that there is more to learn.

I don't know if this is technically my best bird photo so far, but for some reason it is my favorite so far. Hey, a broken leg reduces your sense of adventure to a bird you don't know.

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Hope you like it.

By the way, this photo gallery has some great shots of birds. He has a backyard set up that he changes around and adds natural elements to get different looking shots of birds in the same location. Very cool. If I could walk, I would be doing set up changes like that. Well, actually, if I could walkI wouldn't be shooting out my window.

- darren

 

[nartreb]

This is a great shot. I think it's the second one where the entire bird is in sharp focus. The detail is amazing - you can see individual feathers within the yellow band above the eye.

Just so everyone appreciates how difficult this is, here's the best I could do when I saw one of these in December (I didn't know what it was either):

http://www.davidalbeck.com/photos/photoview.pl?photo=pond9/i10.jpg

 

[NumNum]

Very nice!

I think one of the sweetest things about this bird is the beautiful song it sings!

http://www.naturesound.com/birds/audio/whtthrt.ram

 

[Brambor]

gorgeous clarity on the entire bird, especially the eye.

 

[chipc]

Excellent example of using a narrow depth of field to get rid of background distractions. You also have the good fortune of visually interesting perch.

I am really enjoying this forum (and learning a lot).

 

[el-bagr]

A+

My favorite of yours so far. WTSP is one of my favorite peri-boreal birds, so I'm biased, but the image is top-notch.

I love the narrow DOF. What's the max aperture on that lens? Must be pretty wide. I also like how the twig softly fades out of focus as you get out farther from the center, while the background is way out.

Wonderful sharpness and clarity on the yellow head feathers.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Another exceptional photo, looks like perfection to me.

I also love WTSPs. One of them greeted me with his simple elegant call as I summited on my first Catskill peak. They have been my favorite bird species ever since. Nice to see they can be attracted to a backyard near sea level.