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Wild Birds in Flight

Our goal for this group is to showcase photographs of wild birds in flight.

Featured Work

Final Approach by ronaldok555

Mountain Bluebird’s were fairly abundant in southern Alberta this summer.
Hummingbird attack by citrineblue

Two hummingbirds on the full attack. Aggression and fright showing clearly, taken in an area of the West Andes, Ecuador. Featured in Animals in Action / Featured in Wild Birds in Flight
"Turkey Vulture" by Martin Smart

Best viewed large Featured in “Wild Birds in Flight” October 2009 A Turkey Vulture in flight off Columbia Beach, Parksville, Vancouver Island, BC,Canada Canon 40D / 1/1600sec f9 ISO 400 / 500mm lens + 1.4x converter
watch out by kathy s gillentine

Capture this woodstork at six mile cypress preserve in Ft. Myers, Florida as it was coming in for a landing. / canon 40D /
Chasing for Food by Anne-Marie Bokslag

Featured in the Alphabet Soup group and / in the Wild Birds in flight group. The gyrfalcon (pronounced /ˈdʒɜrfɔːlkən/ or /ˈdʒɜrfælkən/) or Falco rusticolus, also spelled gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia. It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter. The bird’s common name comes from French gerfaucon, and in mediaeval Latin is rendered as gyrofalco. The first part of the word may come from Old High German gîr (cf. modern German Geier), “vulture”, referring to its size compared to other falcons, or the Latin gȳrus (“circle”, “curved path”) from the species’ circling as it searches for prey, unlike the other falcons in its range. The male gyrfalcon is called a gyrkin in falconry. Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus. Plumage is very variable in this highly polymorphic species: the archetypal morphs are called “white”, “silver”, “brown” and “black” though coloration spans a continuous spectrum from nearly all-white birds to very dark ones. The brown form of the Gyrfalcon is distinguished from the Peregrine by the cream streaking on the nape and crown and by the absence of a well-defined malar stripe and cap. The black morph has its underside strongly spotted black, not finely barred as in the Peregrine. White form Gyrfalcons are unmistakable, as they are the only predominantly white falcons. Silver birds resemble a light, grey Lanner Falcon of huge size. There is no difference in colouring between males and females; juveniles are darker and browner than corresponding adults on average. The Gyrfalcon is a member of the close-knit hierofalcon complex. In this group, there is ample evidence for rampant hybridization and incomplete lineage sorting which confounds analyses of DNA sequence data to a massive extent; molecular studies with small sample sizes can simply not be expected to yield reliable conclusions in the entire hierofalcon group. The radiation of the entire living diversity of hierofalcons seems to have taken place in the Eemian Stage at the start of the Late Pleistocene, a mere 130,000-115,000 years ago; the Gyrfalcon seems to represents lineages that expanded into the Holarctic and adapted to local conditions, whereas the inland populations further south, towards northeastern Africa where the radiation probably originated, evolved into the Saker Falcon. Indeed, gyrfalcons hybridize not infrequently with Sakers in the Altay Mountains, and this gene flow seems to be the origin of the “Altai Falcon”. / _Source: Wikipedia IUCN Red List least concern species. Canon EOS 5D Mark II / Canon Zoom lens EF 100-400mm 1: 4.5-5.6 L IS / Exposure time 1/1600s / Aperture value f/5.6 / ISO 200 / Focal length 400 mm
"Food Order" by Martin Smart

Best viewed large. Featured in “Wild Birds in Flight” October 2009 A hungry juvenile Tree Swallow demanding to be fed by a hovering parent. / A Tree Swallow is a small slender migratory songbird with white underneath and iridescent blue-green on top. It has a small bill, long wings and a slightly forked tail. / They nest in natural or artificial cavities near water and are often found in large flocks. They also readily use nest boxes. Their diet is mainly insects, sometimes supplemented with small quantities of fruit and their habitat is primarily marshes and open fields. / This photogrpah was taken in a cherry orchard near Flathead Lake, Montana, USA Canon 20D / 1/1000sec f8 ISO 200 / 500mm lens + 1.4x converter
Red-Tailed Hawk Banking Away by A.M. Ruttle

The red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) are back in the valley of Jackson Hole, Wyoming… spring must be springing! Canon 40D, Canon 100-400 IS lens, f 8, 1/640, focal length 400mm. Featured in: / - The Birds Group, March 2009 – thanks so much!! / - Top Shelf Wildlife & Nature group, April 2009, thanks so much!! / - 300+ Go Long group, August 2009 – thanks so much!! / - Earth Keepers, October 2009, thanks so much!! / - Wild Birds in Flight, October 2009, thanks so much!! / - Americas ~ Rural, Urban, Wild, Free, October 2009, thanks so much!! Views: 740 as of 9 November 2009 – thanks so much for dropping by!
Deciding by BigD

Feature in Wild Birds In Flight group. / Feature in Hummingbirds around the World group. A female hummingbird hovering over a zinna flower deciding wheter to take a sip. I used a Canon Rebel Xti to shoot all my photos. /
Gannet Ballet by Andrew Jones

Gannets on Saltee Island, Co. Wexford, Ireland Other images from the Saltees (clickable links): /
"Daylight Manoeuvres" by Martin Smart

Featured in “Mood & Ambience” October 2009 / Featured in “Canon DSLR” October 2009 / Featured in “Wild Birds in Flight” October 2009 A Short-eared Owl flying low over marshland on the Nanaimo River Estuary, Vancouver Island, BC in search of prey. Although hunting occurs mostly at night, this owl is diurnal as well as nocturnal and Its daylight hunting seems to coincide with high-activity periods of voles, its preferred prey. There are a large number of Townsend’s Voles on this area of marshland. The Short-eared Owl tends to fly only a few feet above the ground until it it swoops down on to its prey feet-first. I have often seen three or four of these Owls hunting over this area at the same time. Best viewed large. Canon 20D / 1/250sec f8 ISO 400
Puffin in flight by Jonathan Goddard

Puffin coming into land on Lunga.

Recent Work

False Start! Who Jumped the Gun? by Chuck Gardner

Best viewed larger… As I approached these American Coot they took off racing across the water to put a safe distance between me and them. / Taken at the Royal Avenue wildlife lookout in Lane County, Oregon, with a Canon PowerShot SX10 IS on 11/19/2009, at TV 1/1002, AVF 5.72, ISO 80 and Focal length 100.00mm.
Descent ~ Bald Eagle ~ by lanebrain photography

This Bald Eagle was descending when I captured it recently on the commercial fishing vessel that I work aboard in the Bering Sea, Alaska. I just thought this shot was pretty neat. Hope you all enjoy it as well.
Finding flatfish for food by alan mattison

shot taken at the fishing harbour at Grenaa in Denmark.taken with a nikon d700 and a 70-200mm 2.8 lens
Flight by Trevor Kersley

Flight of the Eagle
Incoming ~ Dutch Harbor, Alaska ~ by lanebrain photography

When I see this picture It makes me smile. I originally was not going to put this up but something about it is still making me smile so I thought I would share this with you all. Hope you enjoy this as much as I do….just a goofy looking bird.
In Flight #2 ~ Dutch Harbor, Alaska ~ by lanebrain photography

This is an up close shot that I captured of the seabird. It was blowing a little that day and it almost hit me in the head with it’s wing.
BORN TO BE WILD by Scott d'Almeida

WILDERNESS. TRUE BEAUTY IN LIFE – SEEING SUCH A CREATURE FLYING ABOVE THROUGH THE AIR. / THIS WAS MORE PURE LUCK THAN ANYTHING TO BE HONEST. THE BLUR IS A NATURAL OUT OF FOCUS RESULT OF FOREGROUND FOCUS BEING ON THE BIRD, BUT THE GREATED EFFECT IS ONE OF EXTREME SPEED AND MOTION. /
Mighty Wingspan by Ken Haley

A green and violet swallow cruises into a curve hunting flying bugs above a stream in the Alton Baker area of Eugene, Oregon. June 2009.
Seagulls by lanebrain photography

I captured this photo of a group of seagulls following the fishing boat that I work on in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Although it is difficult, capturing photographs of wild birds in flight can be extraordinarily rewarding. These photographs show us something different than a static bird portrait. This group is for liftoff, landing and mid flight shots of wild birds (not shots from zoos, game farms, captive wildlife parks ect.).

Any wildlife photographers or anyone interested in avian photography is invited to join this group. Photographs must be approved by a group host, and please only submit two a day. Also, normal post processing is fine, but please no overly processed shots or HDR images.

For static images of songbirds, see – http://www.redbubble.com/groups/songbirds-of-north-america

See the group rules and join this group here