Bird Photography Essentials by G. Cope Schellhorn

Author:G. Cope Schellhorn [Schellhorn, G. Cope]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2018-07-01T23:00:00+00:00

(46) Chipping Sparrow

I have photographed many Chipping Sparrows over the years. They are quite common in my part of the country and not very difficult to search out. This one, however, was so attractively decked out in breeding colors and posing so impressively, that I couldn’t restrain myself from recording it.

The thing that first catches the eye is the puffed up breast feathers. The bird is either cold or displaying for a mate. There is no indication it has been bathing and is now drying itself. Probably the second thing that catches the viewer’s attention is the interesting color combination of head, brows, eye line, cheeks and mustache. There is a thin whitish streak on the black forehead. We have in order from crown to neck red, white, black, gray, black, white. There is a gray streak running through the subject’s crown which is not visible here.

As sparrows go, this is a colorful lad or lassie. Females and males look alike. This fellow is extremely alert and intensely interested in breeding and, most immediately, in the photographer who has caught its attention.

The shot was done with wide open aperture to blur the background. Because the bird is looking to the left, I have given it room to peer left. The catch-light here, as usual, is a definite plus and enlivens the subject. The bird’s perch, though not a true diagonal, retains some of the energy of one. Finally, it’s the bird’s character and unspoken interests, along with the feather puffery and variegated colors of the subject, which create the viewer’s interest.

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