Birds

Beautiful Bird Portraits from Space Coast

January 26, 2016 by Corey 6 Comments

Back in 2012 when I made my first foray to the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival I put up back-to-back posts featuring up-close-and-personal shots of some of the cooperative birds I encountered. Considering that I am still recovering from driving back to New York from Florida after the blizzard that crushed the northeastern United States wreaked havoc with air travel, I thought that I would put up a similar post now, mostly because I don’t have to think as much to put up pictures that I already took as I do to actually write coherent sentences. Please forgive the brevity and enjoy the images!

Every shot in this post was obtained using my Swarovski digiscoping rig, a pretty fun way to shoot wildlife! Each image except for the Reddish Egret up top has a larger version accessible by clicking on the image.

Anhinga

Anhinga is a bird we don’t ever get to see in New York. Someday I would like to find one at Jamaica Bay. Look at that eye! This bird was lounging at the Viera Wetlands.

Black Vulture

The key to getting good images of vultures, like this Black Vulture, is to disguise yourself as a dead animal. This bird fell for my trick along Biolab Road, just west of the entrance road to Canavaral National Seashore.

Wood Stork

Wood Storks are disturbingly beautiful. Like a warty princess or something. There were lots at Merritt Island’s Black Point Loop this year.

This isn’t the best picture of a Great Egret but I like that it already has green lores. Someone’s ready to get it on!

Turkey Vulture

This Turkey Vulture was not happy to fall for the same trick that the Black Vulture fell for. Angry vulture!

Roseate Spoonbill

It took me at least ten tries to finally get this shot. I’m just glad that this Roseate Spoonbill kept fishing in roughly the same spot until I could nail the fish in mid-toss! There were so many Roseate Spoonbills along Black Point this year that it was hard to count them. That’s a pretty good problem for a birder to have!

Should I do like last year and follow up this post with another series of bird portraits? Or do you want something different? Let me know!

…

10,000 Birds is a Scrub Jay-level sponsor of the 19th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival.

…

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.