How to photograph birds in your backyard

Living along Lake Michigan, I live in a migratory path for birds as they fly North. I put out a bird feeder, suet and in the spring, an orange, to attract birds. Sometimes I like to sit at the window and photograph the birds. Colorful and entertaining, they are exciting to watch when they are close.



The birds only show up though because I provide feeders filled with goodies for them. Little birds, such as chickadees, juncos and sparrows, like sunflower and thistle seeds with millet.

All birds will go to a suet feeder in the colder months. They need the fat to help them stay warm. Woodpeckers will come to a suet feeder year round. It's also important to provide scratch feed for birds. By sprinkling feed on the ground, birds also eat grit, which aids their digestion.

Have you put out a feeder, and no birds have come? Then perhaps you need to provide cover for the birds. They need to feel secure at their feeders. Cats and bigger birds, such as hawks and crows, prey on little birds. If you can provide bushes that bear food that they eat, they like that even more: pine trees, fruit-bearing trees, tall shrubs like sumac, dogwood and highbush cranberry also provide a nice background for your photos.


Purple coneflowers and wild sunflowers also attract birds and butterflies. If you can't plant a tree for the birds, put your old Christmas tree next to the feeder for cover.



Baltimore Orioles love oranges in May. The male eats oranges to make his plumage brighter to attract a mate. Purple finches will also eat oranges. They stay in Wisconsin year-round.
The Mississippi River, Wisconsin River, Horicon Marsh and Lake Michigan are the migratory paths of most birds. If you live near any of these landmarks, keep your camera handy, especially in spring and fall.

What kind of equipment do you need to take bird photos? You will need a longer lens, at least 300mm, to get close, at least 400 asa/iso, image stabilizing lens is nice, but not necessary.


Try to get as close to your subject as possible cropping out as much background as you can. Remember that these birds are wild and easily scared. If you are planning to shoot through a window, a dirty or tinted window will show up in your photo. Reflections can be kept to a minimum by wearing black and placing your lens as close as possible to the window.

You can also use a blind outside, which is available at camping and hunting stores. This allows you to use flash, too, which will help stop the action and add a fill light to the bird's eye. A curtain/blanket placed on the window with a hole cut into it just for your photos will also work.

Remember the quality of your light is important too. The most successful bird photos catch a glint of light in their subjects' eyes (fill light). Shooting at high noon will not give you the desired results.

Things happen quickly at the bird feeder. You will have more success with a DSLR autofocus camera than with a manual focus; some point and shoot cameras have shutter lag and you might miss the shot. A fast shutter speed will help you catch the action, and a shallow depth of field will blur your background.

PS - I said I would write about my impressions about Art Chicago. It wasn't as crowded as the last time I went, which was good. There was some photography. One gallery was selling prints from famous photographers, which I found interesting. My overall impression though was that it wasn't as good as past years. I looked for trends in photography. Conceptual and portraits seemed to be the norm, very small amount of architectural photography.

It was my first time driving in downtown Chicago though. I survived.