Educational

Texas Birders: Stop Taking ID Shots and Start Capturing Character & Personalities

Texas Birders: Stop Taking ID Shots and Start Capturing Character & Personalities

There is nothing wrong with a field guide shot. It is clean. It is sharp. It proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, that yes, that was in fact a Yellow-rumped Warbler and not “some kind of little brown job.” But if every bird photo we take looks like it belongs on page 47 of a laminated reference book, we are documenting feathers, not personality. And birds, despite their modest brains and questionable life choices during migration, absolutely have character. If we want to create bird photos that show their character rather than a clinical ID portrait, we must move from documentation…
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PSA: The Annual “My Hummingbirds Have Vanished!” Fear Has Returned

PSA: The Annual “My Hummingbirds Have Vanished!” Fear Has Returned

Every year, like clockwork, we enter a very special season in the birding world. No, not migration. Not nesting. I’m talking about the Season of Missing Hummingbirds — also known as “That Time of Year When People Forget What Nature Does.” The posts start rolling in:“Help! All my hummingbirds are gone!”“Is something wrong with my feeder?”“Do hummingbirds even like me anymore?” In our Facebook groups: Texas Birder, Birds of East Texas, Birds of Lake O' the Pines, NETFO, etc as well as other birding groups throughout Texas, we start getting post after post, followed by an avalanche of comments—most of…
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