The ‘Birds at Home’ Project

Sometimes a photographic project emerges, when there was never an intention to embark upon a photographic project.

For me, what I call the ‘Birds at Home‘ project, is exactly that.

Every now and then, I will see a bird in our garden and feel inspired to try and capture a pleasing image of that bird.

Over the years, this happened numerous times, and it retrospectively became the Birds at Home Project.

As any experienced wildlife photographer will know, bird photography is very difficult, especially if the subject is small, skittish or both (and this is often the case).

It requires preparation, skill, patience, timing and sheer luck.

Our neighbourhood is unfortunately not one in which people are particularly inclined towards keeping plants, trees and gardens, but our yard consists of a variety of native Australian plants and trees, so this attracts many species of birds.

The project, which unintentionally commenced in 2018, is ongoing, and consists of photographs of wild birds that have come to visit our garden.  So far, I have photographed only six different species at the time of writing.

Many more have visited, but I have not photographed them.

Here is a look at the species of birds that I have photographed (to the time of publication of this article).

My first images consisted of the white-plumed honeyeaters that often visit us.

From that initial session, I published two images.

White-Plumed Honeyeater

Here, a white-plumed honeyeater is amongst the foliage of the native grevillea bushes that adorn our garden.

I like this image, as the honeyeater fills the frame, and is shown in its native habitat.

By contrast, I photographed another honeyeater sitting on the top of the fence.

Fence Sitter

The honeyeater is nicely posed, and its details are visible, but the man-made fence and background (the roof of another house) is not so appealing.

We are very fortunate to have rainbow lorikeets visiting us on a daily basis, and the vivid, attractive colours of these birds appeals to me both in a visual and photographic sense.

I have captured a number of them, but what I had longed to capture was a clean image of a rainbow lorikeet out in the open, set against an indistinct background.

By sheer luck, I achieved this image on one occasion.

Profile of a Rainbow Lorikeet

The rainbow lorikeet had been feeding in a grevillea, and flew away, landing on the top of the clothes line.  It was early on a summer evening, so the light was warm and soft, and I finally landed an image of the lorikeet in the setting that I wanted.

For comparison, here is another rainbow lorikeet photographed only three minutes earlier, positioned nicely in the grevillea.  I am not sure if it is the same lorikeet, as usually these birds visit in pairs or groups.

In His Element

One species of bird that I have only seen once is the silvereye.

After letting the cat outside in the afternoon sun, he started meowing at the tree in the corner.  I thought that there was nothing there, but alas, a tiny silvereye was feeding in our tree.

Silvereye Surprise

I headed back inside to grab a camera and lens, not expecting that the silvereye would still be present upon my return; but he was, and he seemed completely comfortable with me being within only a few metres of him.

A very common species of bird around here is the cinnamon spotted turtle dove.  We see these on an almost daily basis, and on one occasion, I decided to photograph one that was sitting on the back fence.

Cinnamon Spotted Turtle Dove

It was early on a summer evening, so the light was perfect for bird photography.

In 2020, our main dwarf wattle tree produced seed pods for the first time since we planted it, and it attracted flocks of little corellas on a daily basis.  It was the first occasion on which corellas had visited us, so I seized the opportunity during their time here, and captured one feeding on a pod.

Little Corella

The corellas had not returned here until 2023.  I did venture outside to photograph them, but on first inspection, there were no pleasing images.  I may need to re-visit the images and see if there is an image worth publishing.

My most recent image depicts a female superb fairywren.  Of late, superb fairywrens have been visiting our garden very frequently.

Of particular interest is the male, with his distinctive, vivid blue plumage.  I have seen a few males here, but fairywrens are constantly darting around, and I have not so far been able to successfully capture a pleasing image of a male.

On a gloomy and rainy day, I decided to head into our yard and engage in some bird photography.

I spotted this female superb fairywren, and as my luck would have it, the bird flew down to the tiles on the garden bed wall, and posed beautifully, staying still for just long enough for me to capture this image.

Female Superb Fairywren

My quest to capture a pleasing image of a male superb fairywren continues, as does my ‘Birds at Home‘ project.