Chicago Area Birds

[buanadha]

Thought I'd put some of the local bird pictures from Chicago here. Most of these are from the Chicago River inside the city. We are fortunate enough to have some great places for wildlife in the city (as counterintuitive as that seems)

First up a Red Tailed Hawk. I pretty much walked by this one when a man with a stroller asked me what the bird was across the river

Nikon D2Xs + TC-16a + Nikkor 400mm f3.5

• NIKON CORPORATION - NIKON D2Xs
• 0.0 mm f/0.0
• 400.0 mm
• ƒ/3.5
• 1/800 sec
• Pattern
• Manual exposure
• ISO 180

 

[buanadha]

Great Blue Heron from last weekend

• NIKON CORPORATION - NIKON D2Xs
• 0.0 mm f/0.0
• 400.0 mm
• ƒ/3.5
• 1/800 sec
• Pattern
• Manual exposure
• ISO 800

• NIKON CORPORATION - NIKON D2Xs
• 0.0 mm f/0.0
• 400.0 mm
• ƒ/3.5
• 1/800 sec
• Pattern
• Manual exposure
• ISO 800

 

[buanadha]

Haven't been out a lot in the winter here, but we have a lot of birds down from Canada now, and a few old favorites. Here is a Male Belted Kingfisher I managed to catch. They are super small and fast, so I was happy to have gotten a decent picture of him in the air even (wish I'd had the shutter speed higher, but I'm just happy I got him in focus as he went zipping by!)

• NIKON CORPORATION - NIKON D2Xs
• 0.0 mm f/0.0
• 400.0 mm
• ƒ/3.5
• 1/800 sec
• Pattern
• Manual exposure
• ISO 800

• NIKON CORPORATION - NIKON D2Xs
• 0.0 mm f/0.0
• 400.0 mm
• ƒ/3.5
• 1/800 sec
• Pattern
• Manual exposure
• ISO 560

 

[buanadha]

Not many unique birds out today, but I got a bit of practice with my old setup

• NIKON CORPORATION - NIKON D2Xs
• 0.0 mm f/0.0
• 400.0 mm
• ƒ/3.5
• 1/800 sec
• Pattern
• Manual exposure
• ISO 800

 

[buanadha]

A Northern Cardinal I caught this past weekend in Chicago. He was at the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary. It's a great place to see birds as they migrate through, but they seem so used to people that it's almost cheating to get closer to them

• NIKON CORPORATION - NIKON D2Xs
• 0.0 mm f/0.0
• 400.0 mm
• ƒ/3.5
• 1/800 sec
• Pattern
• Manual exposure
• ISO 800

• NIKON CORPORATION - NIKON D2Xs
• 0.0 mm f/0.0
• 400.0 mm
• ƒ/3.5
• 1/800 sec
• Pattern
• Manual exposure
• ISO 800

 

[buanadha]

A Black-capped Chickadee near Lake Michigan in Chicago

 

[buanadha]

came across a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher last weekend (a first for me). It was flitting around in a tree near a path by the river - I think it was gathering material for its nest

 

[buanadha]

Was goofing around with a beater Nikon D300 I own with a Kenko 300 Pro 1.4x teleconverter and a really old Tamron 200-400mm f/5.6 this weekend and came across a really active Great Blue Heron

Oddly, I think the Crayfish was an invasive Red Swamp Crayfish that got into the Chicago River and canals, and the last one I think is a Round Goby, an invasive fish! So the Great Blue Heron was doing it's part to clean up the waterway