Some pet birds -- not mine. . . (6 imgs)

[snostorm]

Hi All,

My mom recently moved to a retirement community, and I recently discovered that they keep exotic finches and very small doves in an aviary in their medical care section. It's about 6' tall, x 2.5' deep 8' long, so the birds have a lot of room to fly around. There are nest baskets and little houses attached to the back wall, so they have places to raise babies, and apparently they do this regularly. I don't know much about birds as pets, but it made for a great opportunity to photograph them in very comfortable surroundings for a change. . .

All shots were with the K10, D FA 100/2.8 macro, and the AF540FGZ in P-TTL mode with a Lumiquest mini Softbox to soften the flash.

The doves are Diamond Doves, and I've been told that they are the smallest of the species at maybe 4.5 - 5" from beak to tail. The first is a male. From reports, they breed like rabbits:-).



. . . and a female (you can tell by the width of the ring around their eyes)



and the finches -- don't know the variants. . .









. . . and Happy Thanksgiving (to our members in the US -- but holiday season greetings are extended to all. . .)

Scott

[nhmom]

Very nice, Scott. I like them all.

And, Happy Thanksgiving to all in the U.S. from here, too.

[bilybianca]

snostorm wrote:

From reports, they breed like rabbits:-).



. . . and a female (you can tell by the width of the ring around their eyes)



and the finches -- don't know the variants. . .
Scaley-brasted munia/Nutmeg mannikin/ Spice finch - Lonchura punctulata. India, The Phillippines, Malaysia, Indochina,Indonesian islands and more.

Bengalese finch. Lonchura striata var domesticus. Domesticated, not to be found in nature (except escapees)

Star finch, Bathilda ruficauda. Northern Australia

Orange cheeked waxbill, Estrilda melpoda. Western Africa.

I'm no guru on these birds, just happen to have some books at home from my younger days when I kept quite a few aviary birds.

Kjell

[mtngal]

Lovely pictures, and thanks, Kjell, for the identification. It's interesting to see where the varieties come from. Scott - that's probably my speed for birds, though I think it sounds funny to use a macro lens for birds.

[ennacac]

What a great variety of birds from all over the world.

Tom

[snostorm]

Hi Patty, Kjell, Harriet, and Tom,

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Patty -- Thanks! Though this is considered cheating for a birder (I guess) it was a treat to be able to shoot small birds in a controlled situation where they couldn't just disappear. The backgrounds could be better, but I like the way the birds came out.

Kjell -- the ID's are very much appreciated. I've seen these "fancy finches" in pet stores, and while I've appreciated them, I never learned much about them. Time to do some more research. . .

Harriet -- The macro was about the only choice. I tried the Tamron 28-75/2.8 XR Di. . . because of its close focusing, but found it a little short, and all of my other teles have much longer minimum focus distances, so the macro was the best choice to keep the camera very close to the plexiglass panes in order to throw the them totally out of focus (they were a little dirty), and to keep from getting stray reflections from the flash.

Tom -- I didn't realize the international nature of the assortment until Kjell's IDs. It is very impressive!

Scott

[snostorm]

Here are a few shots from yesterday. . .

These guys are buddies. . . tho not the same sub-species. . .




and here's a shot of the two Diamond Dove babies (I told you they breed like rats!) I had to be quick -- the dad, who was guarding the nest only left for a couple of seconds at a time. . .


Scott

[danielchtong]

snostorm wrote:

Here are a few shots from yesterday. . .

These guys are buddies. . . tho not the same sub-species. . .


and here's a shot of the two Diamond Dove babies (I told you they breed like rats!) I had to be quick -- the dad, who was guarding the nest only left for a couple of seconds at a time. . .

Scott

Scott

Wow they look like baby cardinals judging by the bill.
I am still learning their proper name. I love your first series as well

This one has paper thin DoF



Daniel

[mtngal]

What fun! I love the babies.