The meadows of my park walk are the warm weather home to goldfinches, beautiful birds characterized by their mini-roller coaster flight patterns. There are certain areas where I can be generally certain of spotting them. I’ll glimpse the undulating flight of a small dot of gold and there one is. Often more than several fly together above the grasses and flowers, looking for seeds or perhaps just enjoying the flight. However, the amount of sightings is inversely proportional to the ease of capturing one of the little beauties on camera!
The first problem is that the iPhone, wonderful though it is, will never work for these shots. A phone of any type won’t zoom in nearly enough, nor can a distant photo of one be successfully enlarged. Secondly, goldfinches are either quite shy or very wary or both. They don’t sit long and once I stop, they’re usually on the wing almost immediately. Of course, in the nature of these things, the two times my husband and I have gone biking around the little lake near our house and I haven’t taken my phone, the cheeky blighters have mocked me by getting quite close!
By taking my Nikon out periodically on walks, I’ve managed to snap a few decent shots of these stunning birds. But for every shot that turned out, I’ve consigned twice as many to the trash bin. As with many birds, the male has the brighter color, vivid yellow in summer, while the female sports a dull yellow brown during the same time. Both may be aggressive through the short breeding season, but are gregarious the rest of the time. Goldfinches use their feet to cling to plants while their specially designed beaks remove seeds. They also enjoy eating at feeders. Meadows and grasslands are their homes, so deforestation actually helps them. They’re found year-round in much of the United States.
Here’s what a goldfinch in flight looked like when I tried to follow it with my camera.
Great captures of the little goldfinch!
They’re so beautiful and I always look for them when I walk.
janet
Really nice shots of those great birds.
Good morning, Lena, and thanks.
janet
Morning 🙂
These are really lovely Janet. The colour palette is great too.
They’re such beautiful little birds, Su, and I’m thrilled to have finally gotten dome decent shots.
janet
Nice shots and interesting commentary.
These seem good enough for a nature/conservation magazine. Good work.
Randy
Good morning and thanks very much, Randy. Hope your week’s off to a good start.
janet
Beautiful, and thank you for sharing because anyone who has tried to take a photo of something that has wings understands the challenge. 🙂
My pleasure, Judy. I’m glad you enjoyed the photos. A telephoto certainly helps when attempting shots of birds!
janet
Love these bird captures!
I was so thrilled to finally get some good photos of these little devils!
janet
Nice shots and processing. Your Goldfinch is very different to our European Goldfinch in color though it looks to be about the same size and have the same feeding interests.
I think ours are North American goldfinches, which would make sense. 🙂
janet
gorgeous captures! beautiful! 🙂
Appreciate that very much, Lola.
janet
Oh, how I know the feeling. I was the same with our fantails. I finally managed to get some decent shot with my Nikon last Friday:
Great photos. Such a beautiful bird
Colourful and yet like thin lace – that is your photos. Lovely.
What a wonderful compliment, Leya. Thank you.
janet
😀
All the photos are excellent, and these little birds are notoriously flighty and thus difficult to capture “on film” – so you have done really well. That second photo is marvellous, and the first one shows how delicate and vulnerable this little birds are. I also like the way you incorporate your name into the photograph is such a seamless, unobtrusive way.
Thanks, thanks, thanks, Amanda. I appreciate you coming over to visit. 🙂 Hope your week’s off to a great start.
janet
gold finches bring good luck
These are really good shots, Janet! I relate totally to your process. I often have the same experience. Birds remain a fascination and a challenge to shoot without blurring them.
But you did a great job and even the last one we can call arty! Why not?
Cheers
Lucile
Thanks, Lucile. We’ll call the last one an abstract. 🙂
janet
😀👍
Stunning!
Thanks! These guys are SO difficult to photograph and as I usually have my iPhone only, I don’t stand a chance. Had to catch them on my photo walks, where I take both phone and camera with telephoto.
janet
I agree. I’ve been photographing birds for a while now and they are very elusive and swift. You did well!
Thanks. 🙂