Author Archives: birdsinmyviewfinder

I do a lot of birds-in-flight photography, always hoping to capture a little extra action. These photos show an Eastern Kingbird closing in on it’s prey, a small insect, and snatching it. Kingbirds are a member of the flycatcher family but, interestingly, they are primarily fruit eaters when wintering South America.

A female Mallard just about to touch down in the pond.

There are two owls in this photograph. Long-eared Owls have a color pattern that makes them very inconspicuous in the cedar and fir trees where they roost during the day. These two came a little further out into the open than usual. The temperature was about 15F (-9C) and the March sun was shining directlyContinue reading “Long-eared Owl”

Well this date seems to have gone sideways. This is a tussle between male and female Boat-tailed Grackles over some table scraps at an outdoor cafe. I’m not sure who tried to steal from the other but it doesn’t look like these two will have a second date.

This is a Rough-legged Hawk in flight showing all of its identification markings. However, it is a light morph so the tail is only dark along the edge instead of having a solid black band along the end of the tail. This is probably a female since there is less mottling on the wings andContinue reading “Rough-legged Hawk”

The Loggerhead Shrike is a songbird with a raptor-like beak. Shrikes, also known as “butcherbirds”, prey on insects and small vertebrates including other birds. They lack the powerful beak and the strong talons of a true raptor. But they can hold prey well enough to use their beak to dispatch their prey with a biteContinue reading “Snapshot: Loggerhead Shrike”

I caught these two birds landing together in very shallow water in a mudflat. The surface provided an excellent mirror. A Killdeer is still in the air as an American Golden-plover touches down on the flat.

This Brown Pelican has just surfaced with his catch only to be accosted by a Laughing Gull. The gull is boldly moving in to see if it can somehow snatch a fish from the pelican. A gull being a gull.

My previous post generated a bit of interest in this photogenic raptor so I am posting a few more pictures that I took that day. There were actually two Swallow-tailed Kites in the air that morning. The first one we noticed had a prey item in its beak. It later transferred it to its talonsContinue reading “More Swallow-tailed Kite”

The Swallow-tailed Kite is a large raptor, as large as a Red-tailed Hawk but much more slender. They are larger than an American Crow. The source of their name is obvious. The black flight feathers and tail combined with the bright white body and wing linings make for a striking sight when viewed from below.Continue reading “Snapshot: Swallow-tailed Kite”