Bird Photography
Bird photography is gaining popularity, especially among seasoned birders who have visited national parks and nature reserves over many years and have already ticked off a good number of species. Tourists to nature reserves often race around relentlessly in search of the big five, oblivious to the feathered treasures around them, sometimes in plain sight, simply because they are just not looking and completely unaware. On the other side of the scale, birding photographers will frequently sit for hours at a bird hide, photographing water birds or passerines, even raptors like ospreys or fish eagles.
Photographic safaris have lately become very popular, with travelers often spending large amounts of money in search of one species they have not seen or captured, or hoping to see and photograph new and exotic species away from home. Popular birding destinations include game reserves, wetlands and conservancies, which are often established to protect breeding or roosting sites of threatened species.
Birders are typically passionate about their pursuit and birding photographers even more so. They are more than occasionally, known and respected champions of conservation and their contributions are invaluable. Birders and birding photographers keep records of their sightings, called life lists, sometimes with sub categories per region and they are always trying to add to these lists, each new sighting called a "lifer". Serious birders frequently take part in bird counts, ringing birds and bird atlassing, which help conservationists to compile data of species numbers, movements, areas of occurrence and migratory routes. Birding photographers can also record vagrant or rare sightings, which are otherwise difficult to prove.