What's your bird count?

[stylgeo]

I only got into bird photography this last year now, and after investing in the Sigma 120-300 2.8 with the 1.4X and 2X TCs (the 2X is now sold since it was soft) I invested a lot of my free time out shooting birds.
I have managed to gather a quite big collection of bird photos, all in the wild in their habitad, but i realised that it was always the usual suspects! I then took all my keepers and just chose one photo of each bird species and copied it on a different folder. I was a bit dissapointed really, the total number of different species is exactly 29.

Blue Tit
Great Tit
Long Tailed Tit
Robin
Blackbird (male, female)
House Sparrow
Winchat
Cyprus Wheatear
Goldfinch (male, female, juvenile)
Greenfinch
Yellow Wagtail
Sardinian Warbler
Red-backed shrike
Crested Lark
Glossy Ibis
Common Kingfisher
Eurasian Hoopoe
Common Raven
Carrion Crow
European Bee-eater
Marsh Sandpiper
Greater Flamingo
Collared Dove
Common Pigeon
Mute Swan
Common Gull
Montagu's Harrier
Alpine Swift
African Stonechat

I can't help but feel a bit dissapointed, after looking at galleries like that of Romy Ocon, who has more than 250 species in his gallery, or my book on the 370 birds of Cyprus, with more than 200 of them shot by the same photographer.

I know that I can boost this list up if I visit my local pond or the canal nearby, but i don't really like waterfowl like ducks or mallards. So how long is your list?

PS: I can post any photos of the list if you like, even though the montagu's Harrier and the sandpiper are heavy crops.

 

[GarynLea]

That's not a bad tally at all for just a year. Mine would be no where near that but I tend to visit the same places

 

[sawman]

Your list is actually quite good for the short time you have been doing it. Forget about the numbers game & concentrate on getting top notch shots rather.

A wee story! Many folks on here have watched / photographed Ospreys fishing. Have you ever watched a Robin fishing? I have!. Now which picture would be the most interesting if posted on here?

Have fun & good luck with you photography.

 

[Busby]

You have some very desirable species in your 29.
All I can suggest to up your tally is to go to different places...For instance, if you travel to one of the big RSPB or WWT coastal reserves, you'd be likely to double your 29 on a good day.
A little research helps...You have to think about the species you hope to see and the places you have the better chances of seeing them.

Not sure where abouts you are, but there are some spectacular things happening at Martin Mere and Marshside at the moment with around 15,000 Pink Footed Geese present, which in turn are drawing in quite a few different types of Raptors.

Also for me, Bird photography is about quality and not quantity.
I'm still after what I see as the 'perfect shot' of nearly every species...I just missed a Robin on a snow covered holy branch last year and that would be high on my list of targets for this winter.

 

[MarkEvan]

As others have said its not the number of species photographed that count but the quality of the shots, your bee eater shots were fantastic so you have no reason to feel down. And get down to your local pond or canal....ducks make fantastic subjects though you`ll wan`t the more colourful ones such as Pochard, Shovellor, Teal, Goldeneye, Smew, then there are Gooseanders, Red Breasted Mergansers etc.

 

[CT]

That's not a bad count for your first year, but as has been said there's a lot more to bird photography than just crossing species off a list. You can never photograph one species too much - try to get that elusive perfect shot which captures the typical nature and character of the bird.

I've spent many hours photographing Wrens and have a load of shots in the bag, but still can't say I've got one I'm truly happy with. :shrug:

You can't compete with the variety of exotica which Romy has at his disposal, or the wonderful environment he lives in.

 

[stylgeo]

Thanks guys for your replies. Don't get me wrong, I am too after that perfect shot, whatever the species, but after yesterday, I don't know, the collector in me just woke up all of a sudden. It was actually reading that Romy Ocon has so many birds in his collection that made me count the species on my own portfolio. If you think about it, it's something to push you even further in your photography. It just made me realise the wonderful birds that I never had the chance to photograph. i.e I never took a picture of a Heron, which is inexcusable of me, living here in the UK and going back to Cyprus every summer. I do want, if I get the chance, to have a picture of a heron, in the right light, with a great backround, holding a huge fish in his beak, but just saying that I do have a good picture of it would probably "force" me to go out and about looking for it, instead of making do with the birds in the back yard. You know where I'm getting at?
It's the same thing with the bee-eaters back in Cyprus. I used to watch them fly all over the place near my house in Cyprus, but they never gave me the chance to photograph them, which made me take my equipment and look for the perfect spot, which was luckily not 5 minutes from where I was staying.
Or the shot of the sandpiper. That shot made me to wake up at 5 in the morning, drive to this pond, set up a hide and wait. It's not a great shot my any means, but just to be able to say that I witnessed that bird in the wild and managed to get a picture of it, well, it's something for me.

Sometimes in our photography we need something to push us even further, probably a goal to drive us as photographers. That might be a self assigned project, or the need to capture as many bird species as possible. It depends on the photographer really, but I do need this driving force in my photography. I'm not saying that it will eventually be a need to "collect" bird species, but it sounds allright to me for now!

And CT, Cyprus is considered a birding heaven for its geographical position, but yes, the Philipines islands must be the Valhalla of bird photographers.