Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Canon 7D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, titmouse, Tufted Titmouse, Woodbridge VA on February 12, 2025| 8 Comments »
I was thrilled to capture this shot of a tiny Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) during a visit to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge last Friday. Normally I see Tufted Titmice flitting about high in the foliage, but this one came down closer to the ground for a moment. As you can see, I was shooting through branches, but I like the feeling that the photo somehow conveys of entering into the private world of this little bird.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Baeolophus bicolor, Canon 7D, Carolina Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Poecile carolinensis, Prince William Forest Park, Regulus satrapa, Tamron 18-400mm, Triangle VA, Tufted Titmouse on February 10, 2024| 1 Comment »
I had low expectations for capturing images of birds when I set out for a hike this past Tuesday at Prince William Forest Park. I knew from past experience that I was unlikely to see very many birds as I walked up and down then hill at the park and alongside the streams. The birds that I was lucky enough to see or hear were likely to be hidden high in the trees, outside of the reach of the lens that I was carrying. Normally I shoot with a 150-600mm lens, but it is a bit heavy to tote around for hours on end and instead I carried my 18-400mm lens, a lighter and more flexible lens that allows me to take wide-angle and telephoto shots.
I did manage to capture a few photos that I am sharing here. The first one shows a Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa), an elusive species that is one of the smallest birds in our area. I tried to track this bird as it moved about and was happy to get a shot when it poked its head between some branches.
A Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) was also playing a combination of hide-and-seek and peekaboo with me. I captured the second photo below when the titmouse poked its head out from behind a tree trunk.
The final photo shows a Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) that perched briefly almost directly overhead. This image has the cleanest composition of the three shots, but does not really give you a sense of the environment in which I found the little bird.
Some days it is nice just to commune with nature, to hear the sound of the rustling leaves and the babbling brooks, to observe the light and the shadows. Any photos that I do manage to capture are simply a bonus.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Baeolophus bicolor, Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, takeoff, Tamron 150-600mm, titmouse, Tufted Titmouse, Woodbridge VA on January 28, 2022| 13 Comments »
Several noisy Tufted Titmice (Baeolophus bicolor) were frantically foraging in the trees on Wednesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I tried to track them as they moved in and out of the branches, but they turned out to be remarkably swift and elusive. However, I am pretty persistent and eventually managed to capture several shots of these little gray birds with their distinctive crests.
The first shot below was a really lucky one. The titmouse had perched momentarily on an exposed branch and I pounced on the opportunity to get a clear shot. Just as I started to click the shutter release, the bird took off. Somehow I captured the moment when the bird’s wings were fully extended, but its feet were still on the branch. The titmouse appeared to be looking right at me in an almost defiant way, as though he were ready to challenge me.
The second shot provides a good look at the beautiful markings of the Tufted Titmouse. You can see its black forehead and the wonderful orangish wash under its wings. I also really like the titmouse’s pensive pose as it turned towards the sun, trying to absorb some of its warmth on a cold winter day.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Baeolophus bicolor, Canon 50D, early bird, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, titmouse, Tufted Titmouse, Woodbridge VA on March 21, 2020| 8 Comments »
The early bird gets the worm, they say, but this mid-morning Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) was eating something different when I spotted it through the trees last Friday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
It is always a challenge to get shots of birds as small as this one (approximately 5.5-6.3 inches (14-16 cm) in length), but I have found that my chances of success increase when a subject stops to eat. I could see the little titmouse clearly, but there was a lot of vegetation between us. As a result, I had to move from side to side, trying to find a clear visual tunnel. I am happy with what I was able to get, even if the bird’s distinctive pointed crest did end up being blocked from view by a tree.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Baeolophus bicolor, birds in the snow, Canon 50D, Haemorhous mexicanus, House Finch, Runnymeade, Tamron 150-600mm, Tufted Titmouse on January 18, 2019| 3 Comments »
Today I decided to feature two of the smallest birds that I spotted in the trees in my neighborhood after our recent snowfall. The first one is a Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor), a little bird that is in the same family as the chickadee. The second one, I believe, is a House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), a bird that I don’t recall having seen before. I was really drawn to its red coloration and learned from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website that the red of a male House Finch comes from pigments contained in its food during molt (birds can’t make bright red or yellow colors directly).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged Alexandria VA, Baeolophus bicolor, Canon 50D, Runnymeade, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto, Tufted Titmouse on January 27, 2015| 6 Comments »
How much of a bird do you need to see in order to identify it? Can you identify a bird merely by its silhouette? If I hadn’t been watching this bird before it dove off of the branch, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to identify it from the silhouette.
Are things easier if the bird is in the shadows, but some color is visible and the shape is more recognizable?
Even if your identification skills are weak, this last shot is clear enough that you could eventually determine that it is a Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor), a frequent visitor in my neighborhood. These birds are small and a little tough to see, but they have really loud voices. (Check out the website of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to listen to its song).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Baeolophus bicolor, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto, titmouse, Tufted Titmouse on November 30, 2014| 13 Comments »
Although I frequently catch a glimpse of them, it’s proven tough to get a shot of a Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor). These little birds are in almost constant motion and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes them as “acrobatic foragers.”
The coloration of the Tufted Titmice is subdued and quiet, but the spiky crest and huge eyes help them to stand out from the crowd. As I was stalking one of these birds, it flew over to a support piece for a bird feeder and perched for a moment, giving me the opportunity to snap off this photograph. Normally I try to have a more natural setting for my bird images, but the bird’s pose was so perfect that I decided to post the image.
A simple shot of a common subject can often reveal its beauty—photography doesn’t always have to be complicated.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, baby bird, Baeolophus bicolor, Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, cavity nesting, Sigma 135-400mm telephoto zoom lens, Tufted Titmouse on May 27, 2013| 4 Comments »
As I stalked the nest of the rescued baby bird featured in a posting last week, hoping to catch sight of its parents, I took this shot. Can you identify the bird from this photo of it entering the nesting cavity?
Let me back off a little and explain. The nest in question is inside of a crabapple tree in the front yard of a neighbor’s house, about a yard or so (one meter) above the ground. There are two openings and you can sometimes see the baby birds’ heads pop up through the lower opening, which serves as a window. I learned that the upper opening serves as an entry door for the parents. This is one of my initial shots with my 100mm macro lens of the tree, with one of the parents entering the “door.”
I came back at a later time with my 135-400mm lens and set up my tripod on the sidewalk and waited. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was shining almost directly into the opening, which complicated the exposure, but my patience was rewarded when the parents made multiple trips into the nest. This is another shot of one of them entering the nest, which you can see is a pretty tight squeeze.
I am not that great at making bird identifications from the rear, so my job was greatly facilitated when one of the birds paused and turned to the side prior to entering the nest. The mystery birds are Tufted Titmice (Baeolophus bicolor). I can’t quite figure out what the little bird has in its bill, but assume that it is something edible. Can anyone else tell what it is?
Timing was tricky as I tried to maintain my focus and the sidewalk was not all that comfortable. (I should bring a cushion next time.) Sometimes the parents would signal their imminent arrival with a call, but sometimes they would fly in out of nowhere. I attempted to capture the birds flying in and then flying out of the nest. Here is one of the few shots I was able to get of one of the parents preparing to leave the nesting cavity.
Sometimes when processing my photos, I come across one that I really like, even though it has all kinds of technical problems. I decided to end this posting with such a photo. The bird has already flown out of focus, but is clearly visible and is casting a cool shadow just below the entry into the nest.
Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Baeolophus bicolor, Black-capped Chickadee, chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Hidden Pond Nature Center, Nikon 80-400mm lens, Nikon D300, Picoides pubescens, Poecile atricapillus, Springfield VA, Tufted Titmouse on February 28, 2013| 10 Comments »
Borrowing a longer telephoto lens earlier this week, I was able to get some shots of the tiny birds that I often see, but rarely am able to photograph.
On Monday, my photography mentor, Cindy Dyer, lent me a Nikon D300 with a Nikon 80-400mm lens. It was a lot of fun to experiment with a much longer telephoto than I am accustomed to using. We spent only a limited time at a local nature center, so I did not have a chance to photograph anything too exotic, but I did get some shots of a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens), a Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), and a Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor).
The background in the first image really grabbed my attention when I pulled up the image on the computer—the tree branches look an awful lot like a suspension bridge.
I included the blurry final image of the chickadee flying away just for fun. I get this kind of image on a regular basis, although usually the bird is out of the frame. The Nikon I was using has a much higher frame rate (up to 7 images a second) than my Canon (a more modest three frames a second), so the chickadee is still in the frame.
I am pretty sure that I will stick with Canon and not switch to Nikon, but, as fellow blogger Lyle Krahn predicted, I am starting to hear the siren call of a longer lens.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 