Lorikeet and Secretary Bird

A couple more birds just flew in from the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. The lorikeet is a multicolored parrot from Australia that lives on nectar. At the enclosure at the park you can buy little cups of nectar and the fearless birds will land on your hand to partake. Which is all very convenient for taking a few photos.

The secretary bird attracts a crowd not because of his colors, which are not very spectacular at all, but because of his gawky shape and the feather quills that stick out from the back of his head. Many sites claim the bird gets its name from these quills and the white and black tunic-like coloring of the bird which is suggestive of a male secretary from bygone-days, but the posting for the secretary bird at the Wild Animal Park's website states that the name of the bird most likely comes from the Arabic saqr-et-tair, or “hunter bird.” Anyhow, the bird struts up and down his enclosure constantly looking for prey, and when he finds a bug or whatever it is he is interested in, he jumps up in the air and stomps on it. Quite entertaining actually!

See these and other birds in the Bird Photo Gallery

Pink-Backed Pelican

Don't you find pelicans a very fascinating bird? I don't know what it is about them particularly that makes them so compelling; perhaps it is that they look kind of comical, and the fact that they can even fly is a surprise in a way as they seem so out of proportion in every way. But on the wing they are so graceful. This is a pink-backed pelican which hails from Africa. I took this photo at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park in San Diego County. You can read on their website about all the different kinds of pelicans at the San Diego Zoo and Park.

See this photo of a pink-backed pelican in the bird photo gallery.

Blue and Gold Macaw #2

This is the same photo as the previous posting, but with significant work done with it. Notably I have blurred and darkend the wing at the right front to provide a sense of depth of field. To draw attention to the bird's eye, I used Photoshop's "Lighting Effects" filter placing a soft omni spot on his eye and also a spot light running from the lower right to the top left across his face.

Working with this photo made me think about what it might be like to get a parrot. Luckily right about the same time I ran across this story from NPR called A Delightful, Awful Marriage, all about the joys, and drawbacks, of letting a parrot move in on your life. Quite funny! And quite a warning!

This and other photos I have taken of birds can be found in the bird photo galleries. There's one for broadband visitors, and one for dialup visitors. Here are the links to each:

Bird Photo Gallery - Broadband Flash Gallery

Bird Photo Gallery - Dial Up Optimized