I had been scheduled to teach a birding photography class at the Anacortes Senior College in May, 2019. That course, as so much else that has changed in our lives since last year, was cancelled due to the COVID virus. I’m going to take the opportunity this site provides to illuminate an important asset for birding photography in your yard and illustrate my point with photos of a juvenile Hutton’s vireo I took on September 11, 2020.
Perhaps the most important attraction feature you can provide in your yard is water. There are many species of birds that can’t be attracted by any food you provide. These are generally insect-eaters such as warblers, vireos, flycatchers and the like. However, almost all birds are attracted to water. Moving water is best… the moving water and sound helps attract birds’ attention. But a simple stationary bird bath will also attract birds.
I prefer that my photos not appear to have been taken without any man-made object in the photo. So when you view my photos, if you were’t privy to the environment I’ve created in our yard, you could imaginatively assume that the photo was taken in a purely natural setting. I work hard creating such an environment and chief among my tools are what I refer to as “staging objects”, sticks and rocks strategically placed around feeders and water sources not only to attract birds, but also to facilitate photographing them.
And just as importantly, these staging objects give you, as a photographer or observer, more opportunities (in both time and poses) to photograph or view a bird in a number of different settings. If you are a photographer, I believe it is important that you vary staging perches from time to time so that all your photos don’t appear to have been taken at the same exact location. To facilitate this you should use objects that are three dimensional… rotating the staging object changes its orientation and therefore the areas on the object where birds will land. I keep an inventory of staging sticks so that I can rotate them into a setting and keep the photographs fresh.
When I have the time I like to eliminate the visual aspect of a saw cut on the end of a staging stick, which indicates what might not be a natural setting. The best technique I have found for this is to burn the end of the stick using a torch, then rub the burned end in dirt to eliminate the burned area!
With regard to rocks, you may have a couple of large prominent rocks and it may be tempting to upend a pointed end. By placing such a rock with a FLAT side at the top you can cap it with another rock and then rotate the top rock to keep things fresh. While rotating staging objects may not be important for an observer, it will eventually become important for a photographer! It’s not unusual for me to take over 300 photos of yard birds in a single day, so rotating perches is important!
To get on with this lesson, as I previously noted I’m posting photos of a single juvenile Hutton’s vireo (an unusual visitor) on a single visit to the yard. I took a total of 41 photos of this bird on five different perches. I retained a total of 15 photos. Why did I retain so many? Most were quality photos (this bird is apparently a juvenile and looks a little rough) and depicted the bird in multiple poses… oriented to the left, right, looking over its shoulder, leaning off a perch, etc. Here are some of the photos…
You can probably pick a favorite, as can I, but I just couldn’t delete good photos of a relatively rare bird!
So I hope I have made my point concerning the value of staging objects in your yard.
PS: Donations of staging sticks are gratefully accepted. One of my best staging sticks was donated by an architect friend who understood the value of three dimensional objects!