When I was trying in vain to get a nice shot of the “wild” Black-billed Magpies at the King Ranch, I thought about their habituated cousins and decided to lure them in range. I put some chopped up peanuts on a boulder and then left for a while. When I checked back an hour or so later there were 3 or 4 magpies feasting. So, I set my camera up and put out some more peanuts. Of course the birds flushed during the setup and the re-feeding. I left them alone with the food and my camera on a tripod and they were back very quickly. Now that I had them “trained”  it was time to go to work.

During my training session, I noticed that the the greedy birds were filling their mouths with as many peanuts as it would hold, no problem as I had a lot, but it made for a very ugly picture and I really didn’t want to photoshop the peanuts out of the image. This time I put just a few peanuts out and to put them on the places that I wanted the magpies to perch. Someplace with the right light and the right background. Photograph and repeat! After a short time the birds were not flushing very far and were often back on the perch and eating the peanuts before I could even get back to the camera!

Using food to get the birds where you want them is a great technique for photographing birds. The “trick” is to not put the food out all over the place. Use food to bring the birds to the perch and background of your choosing and not theirs.

My usual fact section courtesy of What Bird…HERE.

• The Black-billed Magpie spends up to 40 hours building nests with domes on top.
• In the past, they have been considered vermin (due to their feeding on poultry eggs and orchard crops) and farmers have placed bounties on them. They are now protected in the U.S.
• Unlike most birds, they can use scent to locate food.

And this was interesting as well: A recent study at Goethe University in Frankfurt shows that magpies can recognize themselves. Helmut Prior place colored dots on the bird’s necks. When mirrors were place in front of them they would try to remove the dots, indicating they recognized the image in the mirror. This is the first time this type of intelligence has been shown in non-mammals.

I use iBird Pro for ID help and to occasionally and sparingly call birds. It is the perfect bird photography companion and you can see some of these images on there as well. Buy it….HERE.

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As with the hummingbirds the King Ranch is off limits to the public…

Be sure to check back for my featured article on how to setup your gear to photograph hummingbirds with my easy peasy techniques!

In case you were curious:

• The Rufous Hummingbird has the longest migration route of all North American hummingbirds. They travel from Alaska to Southern Mexico!
• With sufficient food and shelter, this species has been known to survive in temperatures well below freezing.
• This bird has an excellent memory for location. They have been observed investigating where an absent feeder was located the previous year.

These tidbits of information were found as usual at What Bird…HERE. Also, a couple of these images will be featured in the next version of the iBird family of apps. Buy yours today…HERE.

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The images were all taken on the King Ranch in Colorado and it is Private Property…VERY Private Property.

In case you are curious about Least Terns:

• Least terns are the smallest member of the gull and tern family.
• They prefer sandy beaches for nesting, but will use a flat gravel roof of a building. On sunny days the hot tar showing through the gravel can burn the feet of chicks or become stuck in their down.
• Courtship typically takes place removed from the nesting colony site, usually on an exposed tidal flat or beach.

I also found several juvenile Common Terns. You can tell by the amount of orange on the bill as well as the brown on the back.

• The Common Tern is sometimes called the sea swallow.
• Birds living along the coast drink salt water. They do not seek fresh water even when it is available nearby. Like many seabirds, they have nasal glands that excrete the excess salt.
• Populations were severely depleted in late 19th century for millinery trade, but have recovered with protection.

I don’t have all of this stuff in my head, I use the fantastic iPhone app, iBird Pro and glean my trivia from the corresponding website WhatBird…HERE.

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iBird is the first software that I purchased for my iPhone and I have had my phone for almost a year! It has everything that I need to know to identify birds while in the field. Great descriptions, great illustrations, great photographs (yes, some are mine) and even calls are included in this application.

Why is a correct ID so important? First, if you ever hope to see your images published they must be correctly identified and iBird will ensure that you get even tricky IDs correct. They are part of the ID centric What Bird website and so are experts at providing the details that you need to sort out what bird (sorry) you just photographed.

One of the terrific features is the bird calls. I can’t tell you how many times I have been able to take a picture  of a bird because I heard the call and could then locate the bird or even better anticipate a behavior based on the call that was being made. This bird knowledge has really helped me take better photographs and I expect iBird will advance those skills even further.

One note about birds calls. In some cases and with some bird species playing their call will cause a reaction. While this can be a boon for the photographer it can be seriously bad for the birds. Please use this feature under the American Birding Associations code of ethics.

You can buy the app at the iTunes store for a paltry $19.99. That is about $80 less than another application that I was looking a that had nowhere close to the features of iBird Explorer.

Visit the iBird Explorer website for all of the juicy details.