Up-Close and Personal with a Tree Sparrow
Despite my window areas lacking any kind of hook, latch or other place to attach a feeder, I’ve rigged a bird feeder onto the satellite antenna brace in an attempt to bring some of the local wildlife to my window. The tree sparrows found it the other day and have been feeding fairly frequently–but certainly not all the time. And they tend to be skittish, flying off if I move even a little anywhere in sight. But if I’m patient and sit by the window for long enough, they won’t notice me if I’m still. So I set up the camera on a tripod, and have been using the full 16x zoom on them from a distance of only a bit more than two meters away. Despite the very windy weather today, they’ve still been coming, and I’ve gotten a few nice shots. This one I thought was particularly good:
Of course, that’s the whole photo, reduced but uncropped. If we zoom in on the bird and crop but don’t reduce:
A slightly less-cropped version can be seen by clicking on the above image. The shot has been Photoshopped only to remove the purple and blue zoom fringing.
That’s about as detailed as you’re gonna get with bird shots, I figure. Now if some other birds than sparrows would only visit….
that’s a cool shot. we’ve got some sparrows visiting our bird feeder on the patio from time to time, but due to the presence of our neighbor’s cats, the birds come and go in two ticks. i tried once sitting by the window to wait for them, but well, i lost my patience. good job there and hope more other birds are visiting you soon!
Thanks! Too bad about the cats. There was a cat hunting the Chinese Bamboo Partridges I saw at Sengenyama Park the other day, I had to shoo it off. I like ’em, but they don’t mix with birding too well.
If other birds do come and I can get some shots, I’ll certainly post them.
By the way, I checked out your blog, and it’s pretty good. I loved the joke about the kid playing with his trains!