I can’t offer any experienced commentary on your set up, but your photos are beautiful! Well done!
Thanks! Hoping to improve them a lot as so far it's been kinda just casually sitting on the porch. If I make some targeted perches or put in some effort with good light, I hope I will get better results.
Nice! Congrats on the house. I hope to be there in a few years. Currently I don't have a yard, but there's a cemetery service road about 50-100 yds behind where I live. There are piles of logs and branches from cemetery landscaping so I've stacked some logs to place food on, and used some branches as perches behind the food. There are also some chunks of old pavement with moss growing on them that I sometimes place atop the logs to make things pretty. I park next to the feeding station and photograph the birds from my car. It gets boring after a while with the same birds and perches so I try to mix it up. A good majority of the birds posted on my Flickr over the past 4-5 months were taken from there. Feel free to ask me any questions on my setups. Not sure how it'd translate to your backyard but I might be able to help.
Oooh creative thinking! If you get a chance, take some pictures of your setup and post them in here!
I think I need to work on cultivating my feeding station to perching station area, so I can more predictably drive the birds to places with better backgrounds.
I'd set up the perches above the top of the fence so that using a tall blind (I have one 6' tall) you can get the woods in the background instead of sky or fence. With a long lens the trees will be so far out of focus they won't look like clutter. Orientation for morning light will probably be most productive.
This is what I was leaning towards too. I think it'll also work out since my porch sits a bit higher than the tree line, so standing up would be perfect height to shoot over that fence.
Unfortunately morning light isn't really possible in this spot. I'd have to go stand on my neighbor's property
Why not just shoot towards the river and set things up between you and the river bank. Great images btw. You could create natural perches to hold seeds.
Will a pond do what you want with the river right there?
Are you using Auto Capture?
We like the river view to be as unimpeded as possible, for when "non bird people" are over lol. Part of the deal was I could have free reign over the yard area as long as I kept the view of the river clean.
I suspect a pond would make a difference, as I doubt birds want to fly all the way down to the river. Plus the river would leave them more vulnerable, I would think.
I have not tried auto capture at all.
I'll second Doug's suggestion above, height would help a lot. How about setting up some tall perches in whatever direction gives you the best light for when you want to shoot and shoot right from your back porch? If the perches are within fifteen to twenty feet or so from the porch and up high you should get nice clean backgrounds. You can also hang some cloth as a bit of a shooting blind around the porch which can help for a lot of skittish birds.
Great ideas! I've been tossing around turning the porch into more of a quasi-blind. I think the birds will also just get more used to me. I can already handfeed some of the chickadees.
You have a pond close to the house. I noticed that a lot of your photos are taken with long lenses. I sometimes use long lenses but not for photos from the back deck. 400mm is long enough. The problem is often that I can't focus close enough. I change perches a lot. I use dead branches tied to the rail of the deck with cable ties.
Personal experience:
Feeding birds leads to having the more friendly birds taking over. I get tired of photographing Sulphur Crested Cockys, Rainbow and Scally Breasted Lorikeets.
In the space of five years a lot has changed. Eldest daughter and her husband have done a lot of work on the property that is good for property price but bad for birds. New garage and bbq area led to loss of a large mulberry tree. No more fruit eaters. Taking out a large tree that dumped leaves in the swimming pool along with the Bougainvillea. The Bougainvillea was home to many small birds such as wrens and finches. The next door neighbour has over the last three years tidied up his property. Lost the Satin Bower Birds.
Noisy Miners like lawns so those have taken over the place.
Check with local wildlife people for advice on what trees and bushes to plant.
From my area, 400mm is certainly not enough haha. I would need a dedicated blind to get that close. Even with the 800mm I haven't come close to hitting MFD (16').
If you will post some pics of your setup with branches tied to the deck rail, that would be super helpful!
Sad to hear about the loss of birds in favor of property values. I'm hoping that over time I can turn this property into a bit more of a "jungle" and try to attract as many species of wildlife as possible!
I'm always playing around with backyard setups. Food, and water is what you need. A bush, low tree nearby for them to stage while waiting. I have been setting up perches in different sized of Christmas tree stands (really cheap on Dec 26th at lowes or home depot). For the larger birds woodpeckers I use old dead limbs from a wildlife area where they are logging. I use a 12 inch electric chain saw to cut off an appropriate limb. I will drill 1" holes at a 45 deg angle on the back side. I use to fill them with suite, but now use shelled peanuts. The suite really messes up their beaks. I have a blue bird house that usually has 3 batches each year. I set up a perch 15 to 20 feet in front of the birdhouse. That way I know flight path and can catch them in flight going in the birdhouse. For smaller birds I will use a ground platform feeder, the smaller the better. Then set up a perch using small limbs from a bush preferably one with berries of flower nearby. I want them to have to wait to get to the food, that way they will land on the perch. Removing all the other feeders when I set up. I use the standard cement birdbath with a dripper, and a solar fountain. It really doesn't take much. My yard is smaller that what you are showing in your image. I don't even have grass, just flower patches... There is no way that I can have a "natural" background. I use some cheap light stands, a clamp screwed on to the top, and 5 ft of 3/4" or 1" PVC pipe. I go to lowes and get the economy pack of clamps then drape some cloth over the PVC use the clamps to hold the cloth on the top, and sides. Right now I'm using Camo cloth from amazon, I have found the bright green looks better than the browns. The background is totally out of focus and you can't tell what it is. I have used cloth from frabic shops, blankets from goodwill etc. Just someting that when completly blurred will look somewhat natural. I have been doing this so long the birds really don't pay any attention to me while out working in the yard. I have had woodpeckers land on my shoulder numerous times. But...take out a 600 mm lens and point it at them and puff they are gone, or an least very nervous and jumpy. Now I have a chair, and Camo netting I wrap around. That seems to help.
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Using Christmas tree stands is a fantastic idea! Those are the type of top secret tips I'm looking for!
I would love to see some pictures of your setup! Especially given you have so much going on in a tighter space. I'm already struggling with how many different plants and perches I want to fit in this area.
Good idea about the camo cloth. I suspect at the distance the fence is, if I drape some cloth it'll blur out nicely and nobody will be able to tell that it's unnatural.
That is crazy about the woodpeckers landing on you! I would love that.
The Tragopan stuff is quite pricey, but man does it look nice. I may have to try to do a cheaper DIY version at some point.
The wild songbirds need and use water as much as food. A simple bird bath to start will work. Birds are attracted by movement in/on the water. A simple water drip into the bird bath will help to get their attention.
Add perches strategically positioned close to the feeders and bird bath that the birds can stop on before continuing down to the feeder or bath.
After you have the feeders, water, and perches in place consider a photo blind to shoot from - you'll be able to get closer to your avian models. Start will something simple. Something is needed to shield yourself/human form from their view when feeding or at the bird bath or perches. A piece of fabric, old blanket, etc hung-up that you can set behind with your camera on tripod will work. Birds won't care if it's latest hi-tech camo pattern, etc or an old worn blanket.
Later consider a pop-up hunting/photo blind to shoot from - less than $100 on Amazon.
As for better background - try to use shallow DOF if possible. Then position your blind and yourself when shooting to take advantage of exisiting better backgrounds. Try to keep the sun light coming from behind you as much as possible when shooting. You could even create your own small backgrounds to strategically place a distance behind the perches, etc. when shooting.
Yes, water is one thing I am lacking and need to work on! I've tried a couple of bird baths but they were all too deep (even with rocks placed inside) and I found that the birds would not touch them.
I'm looking to pick up one of these:
which I've seen good reviews saying the depth is perfect and birds will love it. also working on building some DIY water fountains that hummingbirds might love:
