Friday, October 29, 2010

Chickadee

Each autumn and winter we have just a few chickadees visiting our feeders.  I have found photographing these birds very frustrating.  With a black eye set in the bottom of their black crown capturing good eye detail nearly always seems to elude me.  That is why I was very pleased when I reviewed this image that I captured this evening.

The diffused light from a heavily clouded sky provided perfect lighting to photograph the chickadee by.

I hesitate to call this a Black-capped Chickadee since learning that both Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees are found in our area and the difference between them is too slight for me to make a positive identification.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Coy, great capture! Ours are a challenge too. They rarely sit still long enough to get a decent shot. Half of mine show the bird exiting the frame! But occasionally one will come along a pose and make it all worth while! They are such pretty little things!

Elaine said...

With chickadees, you've got to take hundreds of shots to get one really good one. Of course, then all the stars align and the lighting is perfect and you can get several. Good work!

Peg said...

I'm from New Brunswick and he sure looks like our black-capped to me. they are so fidgety, its hard to get a great photo of them. You did very well.

Misty DawnS said...

I know exactly what you mean about trying to get eye detail on a dark face. I've got three Border Collies! hehe ;-)

Montanagirl said...

This is a very nice shot of the Chickadee. I have the same problem with their eyes when trying to get a picture of them.

Kerri Farley said...

Sweeeeet!

ASHE said...

Not to mention the black-capped and Carolina's will hybridize - so you might literally have a half-and-half. I have heard that black-cappeds have a much stronger white streak on their wings. I have also read that this is a year where large numbers of Canadian black-cappeds are moving south in search of food. So you might see more than usual!