By Vladimir Brezina
I am still sorting out my hundreds of photos of birds from our Florida trip back in February. But this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge theme, “Close”, has prompted me to marvel at how closely I was able to approach many of the birds.
I rented a kayak and paddled through the mangroves. The birds perched in the tree tops—some of the trees were absolutely festooned with birds, like some kind of fruit—and looked down at me nonchalantly.
Other birds stood on low branches projecting strategically out over the water. These two just looked at me stolidly, even though I was so close that my kayak was actually bumping into their branch. I could have picked them up with my hands.
And so I was able to get some good shots of the various birds. I have a reasonable idea of what many of them are—some are unmistakable!—but identification by experts would certainly be appreciated!
Some other bird photos from that trip are here, here, here, and here.
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
The photos just kept getting better and better as I scrolled down the page! I felt like I was at home on the river in Ecuador, where all of those species gather enhance my day! The mangroves, herons, ibis, egrets – wow, I was right there in the kayak as well! Thanks, Z
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Thanks, Z—so glad you enjoyed the photos! The real-life experience was pretty overwhelming :-)
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Great pictures
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Thanks, Robert!
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You have the camera for ccloseup shots! I will be doing a FL based BLOG this week as well nice to see others point of view
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Well, most of these photos were taken with a telephoto zoom lens zoomed out to 300mm. That was great insofar as I could capture the details of the birds well. But there was often some fuzziness about these shots taken from the kayak, but not those taken from land, making me think that at that magnification the motions of the kayak interfered—as you would expect, even though the water was pretty calm.
I will look out for your FL post!
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cool I have an Easy Share Z712 I think My first camera with all the settings I really like film frmat till I found I could dete half my photos
I have it almost ready to post :)
Thanks for reading my posts and the comment thanks again
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Saw your post—very nice!
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Your photos were close-ups which someday I will be able to do as well thanks so much for checking it out!
It was a very special trip to take with Mom
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Photos 2 and 3 are of Yellow crowned night herons , 4 and 5 are immature yellow crowned night herons . I love watching the herons fish ,stealth is their game : ) . The Cajuns used to harvest them for their breast meat but I believe their a protected bird now . Nice details in the photos .
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Thanks, Stephen! Yes, I was pretty sure that the adults were yellow-crowned night herons, but wasn’t sure about the juveniles. What about black-crowned night herons? As I understand it, the juveniles of the two are hard to tell apart. Do black-crowned night herons even live in that area (Gulf coast of Florida)?
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Seems so http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-crowned_Night-Heron/id . I remember observing these Black crowned night herons as a kid and thinking that they had a sinister look and movement to them as they hunted lol . The Belted kingfisher is another favorite http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Belted_Kingfisher/id .
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Love the kingfisher photo!
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Fantastic shots. The last one is my favorite. The brown feathers on its neck look so soft. I wonder what it was thinking.
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The problem of other minds… Thanks, Honie!
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Your photos make me glad I got an iPad!
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I do hope that’s a compliment, Janet!
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Reblogged this on bocawhisper.
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Thanks so much for visiting, liking, and reblogging!
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Great Pics!
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What a great assortment of bird close-ups! Just wonderful!
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I focused on the close-ups in this post. Many more photos are of somewhat lower quality (taken from further away, usually) so that they don’t provide adequate close-ups, but still show the whole bird well in its environment… I’ll post those later!
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Look forward to it!
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The second picture is of blue herons. The 9th photo is a great blue heron.
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Thanks, Gayle! I believe the second photo in fact shows two adult yellow-crowned night herons… but the later photo is definitely a great blue heron! They were pretty common thereabouts…
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Vlad, these photos are wonderful, thanks for sharing,MJ
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Thanks, MJ!
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Vlad, these are great! Years ago I was canoeing in Florida. As you’ve shown, the birds are wonderful! Thanks for the lovely photos and for giving me some good memories!
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The birds don’t change over the years :-) Thanks, Cathy!
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I love them all. I once painted a picture like the white bird. After seeing yours, my bird has a big neck. I think I will throw my painting away now. I used to watch those birds all the time when I lived in Florida.
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Don’t throw the painting away—it’s quite remarkable how their necks can assume all sorts of sizes and shapes…
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These pictures are simply gorgeous! Loved the heron … Wish I’d been there :)
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Birds were all over the place, wherever one looked. Especially herons!
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perfect portraits of these characters!
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And they did have their own individual characters—where each type of bird liked to perch, how it moved, how closely it would allow me to approach before it got nervous and flew off… After three days I began to discern these characteristics quite well…
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Great avian portraits!
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Thanks, Fergie!
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Wow, they let you get really close! Lovely shots :)
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Either that, or I had a big telephoto lens… a bit of both, actually!
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Beautiful! Have you seen some alligators, too?
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No alligators, although we were in some prime alligator territory. I was hoping! In fact, I haven’t seen an alligator in the wild yet. But I did see three manatees, and a number of dolphins of course.
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Oh my God!
You are so lucky to have had the opportunity of being so close to them.
Great photos, with amazing details!
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Thanks, Pablo! That part of Florida is pretty densely populated (by humans), but there are also many little mangrove islands where the birds are left completely alone and where they feel pretty safe. So they were not too worried when I got close…
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Great shots of the yellow-crowned herons and juveniles. And you even captured a roseate spoonbill! And have to love the pelican-on-piling shot. Well done. Nice way to see Florida.
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There were several roseate spoonbills—I thought they were rare, but they didn’t seem to be especially rare in that area.
A very nice way to see Florida—for me, certainly!
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Count your blessings! In nearly seven years down there, did not see ONE spoonbill.
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Well, I’ve been to Florida many times now, and still have not seen an alligator…
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Wow! Keep lookin’! All those things that look like logs in the water probably aren’t. We’ve even seen gator roadkill in West Palm Beach. (Must’ve been hit by a semi).
We’ve even seen them lollygagging in little pools that accumulate inside the loops of highway clover leafs.
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I’ll keep looking! Part of the problem is that when I go to Florida I spend a lot of my time in some air-conditioned hotel or conference center, not exactly prime alligator habitat….
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Stunning photos of these birds!
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Thanks, Colline!
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I’ll second Stephen above. Compare:
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Thanks, Steve! That’s a great picture you’ve got there (and a great blog!).
Yes, the adult yellow-crowned night heron is pretty unmistakable (the juveniles are another story). In the part of Florida where I took these photos, yellow-crowned night herons were everywhere, almost as common as pelicans…
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I don’t know much about birds, so I was surprised to learn that the yellow-crowned night heron is found as far inland from the Gulf of Mexico as Austin, including right in my neighborhood.
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:-) And they are even seen here in NYC!
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most beautiful pictures, they are a delight to look at
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It makes me very happy to hear that! :-)
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Each bird was striking a pose like a pro…:) I enjoyed these photos very much!
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Certainly the pelicans, at least, were pros! Literally: they stood and preened on pilings just off a very busy resort boardwalk, and I could swear they were posing for the tourists…
Thanks for following our blog—lots more to come!
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Looking forward for more!
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Really nice! What Equipment did you use?
Maybe you like my bird photos: http://klangspektrum.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/vogel-essen-kirschen-ich-photographiere-sie/
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Nothing very special: a Nikon D80 with the AF-S Nikkor 55-300mm lens, mostly zoomed out to 300mm… and a kayak, for getting really close!
And I do like your cherry-eating birds! Thanks!
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Incredible pelican shot!
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Yes, I got lucky with that shot. I hope you were able to see also the other shots in that series…
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Beautiful photos, especially the really close up ones!
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It was an unusual chance to get really close to the birds :-)
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