I’ve developed a new axiom regarding my bird photography…
It doesn’t often happen but from time to time an interesting bird won’t spend enough time in or near one of the water features for me to photograph it. As you can imagine, this can be quite frustrating, especially if the bird is a rather rare visitor to my yard OR one which is difficult to photograph.
On April 30, 2015, I had at least three observed visits from one or more Orange-crowned warblers. A few weeks previously I was ecstatic over the warbler’s visits, but they now occur often enough that I have pretty much developed a “ho-hum” attitude. Even though I probably have over a hundred decent photos of this warbler, I still haven’t lost interest in photographing the species… or almost any other species, for that matter.
So as I sat in the yard observing the bird traffic on this particular day I had yet another Orange-crowned warbler visit one of my (static) water features. I set to work documenting its visit. As I took photograph after photograph of the bird I was suddenly startled to see, in the viewfinder of my camera, a different bird wanting to get into the small bird bath. It was a female (as told by the yellow eye) Bushtit, a not uncommon bird but a rare visitor to the yard and a bird difficult to photograph due to its constant, frenetic feeding activity. I immediately switched my attention to the Bushtit and took several photos of it as it impatiently waited for an opportunity to use the bird bath.
As I watched and photographed I developed my axiom, which I realized I recognized for several years…
When two different species of birds, who don’t share the same ecological niche, gather at the same bird bath at the same time… the photographer wins!
While both of the aforementioned birds might be found in generally the same habitat, the warbler makes its living working through the canopy looking for insects. The Bushtit, on the other hand, is generally found in shrubs and bushes looking for seeds and insects. They would usually not be found in close proximity, so they might be somewhat nervous about sharing space in a restricted area. (Contrast this situation with Pine siskins and American goldfinches, or House sparrows and House finches.) So in this case, the new arrival’s desire to access the water, but hesitation to do so, provides additional opportunities for the photographer to obtain photos. And that’s exactly what happened in my documentation of this encounter!
