Bird Photography Involves Thinking Fast & Acting Decisively

The Pre-copulatory Stand and the Cloacal Kiss

An 11-second Photo Mechanic Movie

Many species of larger birds including gulls, terns, and cranes, employ the pre-copulatory stand as part of their courtship rituals. The male mounts the female, raises its wings, and practices balancing atop the female. At times, I have seen a male Royal Tern stand on the female for minutes on end without attempting to copulate via a cloacal kiss, the touching together of the cloacas of a male and female bird, during which sperm is transferred.

From the moment the female leaned forward till the moment the male hopped off her, I created only 116 images over the course of 22 seconds. With a frame rate of 30 fps, it is obvious that I did not hold the shutter button down. I was quite selective. I kept 24 photos from the sequence.

Taking a close look at the series, I am not sure if this pair actually copulated. What do you think?

Figure #1: Map of the South Lakeshore at ILE

Acting Decisively!

On a warm, still morning with some ground fog, Bob and I were on foot at A when I noticed a pair of cranes to the north (at B) acting very friendly. “In the car,” I said to Bob, “let’s go!” I knew instantly that if we shot from where we were that we would have the pavilion, the bathroom building, and/or the small marina at the end of the canal as our background. Giving the birds as wide a berth as possible — remember that they are silly tame, I drove to C and pointed my SUV west by slightly north. Note that we could have gotten a lot closer without disturbing the courting birds, but I had used the distant trees as background before and knew what I wanted.

For many decades, my thoughts are that I would rather wind up with nothing than make a series of images that would not make me very happy, in this case, a series of images with horrific backgrounds. As things turned out, we were in perfect position when the action began. (Learn more about the decision by reading on.)

This image was created on 17 December 2024 down by the lake near my home at ILE, FL. Seated in the driver’s seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 1250. Exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/640 sec. at f/4 (wide open). AWB at 7:25:18am on a partly cloudy morning just after sunrise. Tracking: (right center) Zone/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #1: Sandhill Crane pair — female inviting copulation

Why Sidelight?

In my forty-one plus years of bird photography, I have rarely used sidelight. But, with the sun just peeking through the clouds, the light was incredibly soft. And pleasing. Had we opted to work on sun angle we would have had a boring lake background, might have disturbed the birds, and would have been shooting down at them. So, the decision to drive well past the birds, go with the gentle sidelight, and reduce the angle of declination, was any easy one for me.

Speaking of light, please note that I have nothing against using backlight in the right conditions.

This image was also and obviously created on 17 December 2024 down by the lake near my home at ILE, FL. Seated in the driver’s seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 1250. Exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/640 sec. at f/4 (wide open). AWB at 7:25:20am on a partly cloudy morning just after sunrise. Tracking: Zone/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #2: Sandhill Crane pair — pre-copulation stand

Shutter Speed Considerations

Just prior to the action, I had been working at 1/250 second. Once I saw the female lean forward to invite the male, I knew that some flapping would be involved; I raised the ISO four clicks. That allowed me to raise the wide open shutter speed to 1/640 second (at ISO 1250). If you watched my hugely popular YouTube Shutter Speeds for Bird Photography, you would know that while 1/640 sec. was much better than 1/250 second when shooting moderate action, it was a bit less than ideal, 1/800 or 1/1000 sec. After our session, I was hoping that all the images were sharp. They were. In part, because of the distance. Remember that the degree of blurring at a given shutter speed increases as the distance to the subject decreases.

If you missed the video, you would be wise to check it out here.

The Post Processing

Note that I opted to fill in the sky in the upper right corner of each frame with trees. I used warped, refined Quick Masks that were refined by Regular Layer Masks. All as detailed in Digital Basics II and in the Digital Basics III Video Series.

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The BAA Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide You can purchase your copy here in the BAA Online Store.

The BAA Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide

126 pages, 87 photographs by (the late) Joe Przybyla and Arthur Morris.
The PDF for this e-Guide is an electronic download sent via e-mail.

Purchase your copy here in the BAA Online Store.

I had thought about doing a guide to some of the great but little-known photo hotspots around central Florida for about a decade, but those plans never came to fruition. I met Joe online in the Avian Forum at BirdPhotographer’s.Net about two years ago. Joe’s photography has improved tremendously over the past few years; he credits the BAA blog, my books and PDFs, and his participation on BPN. The one thing that I learned right from the get-go about Joe is that he is a hard and tenacious worker, always striving to improve his skills and to grow his knowledge base. As he knew of more than a few good spots in central Florida, I broached the idea of us doing a photographic site guide that covered many of the little-known photographic hotspots from Brandon to Lakeland to Joe Overstreet Road to Indian Lake Estates (my Florida home for the past 20 years or so). After more than many, many dozens of hours of effort, The BIRDS AS ART Middle of Florida Photographic Site Guide is now a reality. Thanks to Joe’s wife Dottie for her review of our writing. We all learned once again that writing is a process, a back-and-forth process. All thanks to the white pelicans of Lakeland. Below are the locations that are detailed in this e-Guide. Please note that last season, Gatorland did not offer a Photographer’s Pass.

• Indian Lake Estates: Sandhills Cranes with chicks and colts, lots of vultures, and Ospreys up the kazoo!
• Gatorland, Kissimmee: Learn to make great images of wading birds in a cluttered rookery.
• The Brandon Rookery: Great for nesting Wood Storks, Great Egrets, and more.
• Circle Bar B Reserve, Lakeland: Here you will find a great variety of avian subjects in a great variety of habitats.
• Lake Morton, Lakeland: There are lots of silly tame birds here including and especially American White Pelican during the colder months.
• Lake Mirror, Lakeland: Tame Anhingas, Limpkins, and a zillion White Ibises at times.
• West Lake Parker, Lakeland: Here, if you are lucky, you will have a chance for two difficult birds: Snail Kite, and Purple Gallinule.
• Joe Overstreet Road, Kenansville: Crested Caracara, meadowlarks, Loggerhead Shrike, and much more on the fenceposts and barbed wire.

Each location includes a map, a detailed description of the best spots, best season, light and time of day instructions, the expected species, and an educational and inspirational gallery that is designed to open your eyes as to the possibilities.

You can purchase a copy here in the BAA Online Store.

Typos

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