I was admiring a flowering bottlebrush when the leaves flew away; a couple of dozen Silvereyes had been dancing amongst the blossoms.
Silvereye
Canon 5D3, 100-400mm L IS USM
Over the next few hours I gradually crept closer to the bottlebrush and managed to capture some images of the busy little Silvereyes that showed the details of their feathers.
Silvereye
Canon 5D3, 100-400mm L IS USM
It’s not often that I get a shot that shows a tiny bird’s back so clearly while its head is at a pleasing angle. I have a ‘thing’ about head angles, preferring the head to be turned towards the camera, too far one way and the bird’s head is turned away from the camera, too far the other way and the bird is facing the camera head-on. There are times when such shots are great, I’m trying to stop deleting them!
Silvereye
Canon 5D3, 100-400mm L IS USM
I very much enjoyed watching the Silvereyes’ acrobatics, especially as they are so much tinier than the blossoms on which they were feeding.
The images I’ve shared in this post have clear backgrounds, others that I took show Silvereyes lost amongst the foliage. If my internet connection (or lack thereof) hadn’t already caused me to spend several hours just trying to update lirralirra I’d add another image but I’ll save that for another time.
Taking these images was challenging as Silvereyes move rapidly. I tried to count how many times they dipped their bills into the bottlebrushes and my best calculation was three dips per second – that’s a lot of movement to try to freeze. Then there was the issue of the background and the changing light conditions meaning I was constantly leaning and changing the camera settings. Added to that was the wind which was merrily blowing the blossoms in every direction. Trying to keep the focus point on the eye of the Silvereye while it was darting around, dancing up and down on each blossom and being blown about by the wind was a fun challenge that I hope to do again before the blossoms fade away for another year.
Happy birding, Kim
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Such a beautiful little acrobat. Work of art capturing them as you have.
Looking forward to the next amazing capture .
Dean
They really are acrobatic, beautiful little birds but it’s your work that’s incredibly creative Dean; I’m still looking around me wondering what is real and what isn’t.
I really love your photos.
Your comment means a lot to me Gwen, thank you.
Beautiful work as usual Kim, stunning quality, great poses.
Thanks Phil, I really appreciate your comments.
While the first shot is stunning it is the last one that I think really shows the little ones personality! What cool little birds and I am so glad you were up to all the environmental challenges. Those fast little ones are hard enough to shoot without wind adding to it!
You’re definitely right about the wind Sherry! It was bad enough with the birds flitting around so fast without the entire blossom disappearing out of the frame because of the wind!
Superb shots, absolutely stunning, thanks
Thank you Pauli, I’m glad you like them.
Hi Kim You have done it again, what great shots of what I believe must be a very small bird, can remember seeing the bottle brush for the first and if my memory serves me right the bottle brush did not seem to large itself, but then I suppose there is different sizes in that flower also. Not having these flowers here I was very much taken with their beautiful vibrant color. Love Dona
You’re right about the bottlebrushes Dona. The Silvereyes are so small that you don’t know they’re there unless you watch the plant closely, or you accidentally flush the birds. I’m glad you like the images 🙂