Introduction

When I started taking pictures of birds, my main objective was to get a (hopefully good) picture. I wasn’t paying close attention to my surroundings, the behavior of the birds, or whether or not birds were sensitive to my presence. The closer I got to the bird, the better, and if the bird was doing something interesting, I was happy because I got some great pictures. 

After working through a bird photography training program from the Audobon Society, I became aware that some of my behaviors likely were stressing birds. While I was getting good pictures, they came at the expense of disturbing my subjects. In one instance, I was photographing a hawk sitting in her nest. She became agitated and left her nest, swooping over my head and making a racket. I got a good picture of the hawk, but I should have left the area once she had become agitated. My actions may have resulted in harm to the hawk or her eggs.

Red-tailed hawk metioned in this post

More bird pictures are available at our sister site, Birds of Rockefeller.

Bird Photography Ethics Tips:

As I hike and look for birds to photograph, I work to be aware of situations where I might be causing undue stress. Here are some of the things I’ve learned:

• Be aware of your surroundings. Is there anything outside your camera’s frame that might indicate you are interrupting their nesting or mating behaviors? The story about the nesting hawk above is a good example. 

• Listen to the sounds the bird makes. Is there an indication the bird is stressed? Recently, while hiking, I ran into a couple who found a red-eyed vireo chick on the side of a path and moved it into the brush on the side of the path. It had fallen out of the nest. They told me the mother was agitated as she flew around looking for her chick. As I approached the area, I could hear the mother’s cries and saw her quickly moving from branch to branch. While I could have gotten some great pictures, I elected to move quickly and quietly through the area to prevent further stress.

• Walk quietly when approaching a bird. This helps you get better pictures because the bird hangs around longer and helps prevent startling the bird.

• Wear muted colors. Some folks wear camouflage clothing when photographing birds. I wear earth-tone colors and avoid bright clothing that will help me blend more into the surroundings. Some folks use a blind that they put up a day or two before photographing birds so they are used to the structure and not threatened. I have yet to try a blind, but based on speaking with other bird photographers and research, I believe the muted clothing colors help reduce my impact on the surroundings.

• Stay as far away from the bird as possible while getting a good picture. I use a Sigma 150mm to 600mm zoom lens with my Sony a6700 camera. The length of the lens and the crop factor of the camera’s sensor (1.5) make the effective maximum focal length 900mm. This extra “reach” helps me capture shots I might not be able to with a 600mm lens alone. It helps me keep far enough away from my subject while still getting great pictures.

• Don’t use the bird calls in eBird or other apps to attract birds. I have not done this; however, I have seen other photographers hiking with the volume of their phones turned up, playing bird calls.  They use the Merlin app to identify birds in the area, then go to eBird and play the recordings of the bird’s songs. My research indicates this confuses and stresses out birds and shouldn’t be used when photographing.

Ethical Bird Photography Summary:

The list above isn’t complete, but it should give you some ideas about how you can be a more ethical bird photographer. It takes some practice to identify problematic situations where you should “back off” from taking pictures (I’m still learning). But once you’ve become more familiar with birds’ behavior in the field and things that may stress them, you will know when to move on and avoid stressing out the birds. You should feel better about the bird pictures you take because you worked to minimize the impact on your subjects as they go about their day. This is one of the “bird photography best practices” that I’ve found make taking pictures of birds more enjoyable!

More bird pictures are available at our sister site, Birds of Rockefeller.