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The Helpful Birder

Featured Posts General Birding

Where to Find Birds

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Featured Posts General Birding

Not All Blue Birds are Bluebirds

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Featured Posts General Birding

How Nature Reuses Its Resources

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Bird Species Featured Posts

Species Spotlight: Swallow-tailed Kites

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  • How to Photograph Birds in Flight
    Bird Photography

    How to Photograph Birds in Flight

    One of the hardest things to photograph in nature is a bird in flight. It’s a technique that takes both study and practice. If you’d like to improve your bird in…

    February 7, 2022
  • judging the size of a bird
    General Birding

    Why the Size of a Bird is Such a Difficult Field Indicator

    One useful way to identify a bird is by size. Everyone knows an eagle is bigger than a sparrow, a mallard duck bigger than a cardinal. In fact, it’s a great…

    January 12, 2022
  • Where to find birds
    Featured Posts General Birding

    Where to Find Birds

    Birds are everywhere, right? That’s totally true, except when you’re armed with your field guide, a pair of binoculars, a packed lunch, and a camera. Then they’re nowhere to be found.…

    January 6, 2022
  • Eastern bluebird, Flagler County, Florida
    Featured Posts General Birding

    Not All Blue Birds are Bluebirds

    For beginning birders, the easiest way to identify a bird is by color. Northern Cardinals are red, American Goldfinches are yellow, Eastern Bluebirds are blue. (After all, that’s why they’re called…

    January 6, 2022
  • Featured Posts General Birding

    How Nature Reuses Its Resources

    I find it fascinating how resources are reused by nature in many ways. One example of how nature reuses things is a basic hole in a pine tree. I have really…

    August 2, 2020
  • Florida Scrub-Jays
    Bird Species

    Species Spotlight: Florida Scrub-Jays

    Many of us here in eastern North America know and love (or hate) the beautiful Blue Jay. But there are many other jays present in the US as well, and one…

    May 27, 2020
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thehelpfulbirder

I had hoped to get a shot of a Cactus Wren (351/52 I had hoped to get a shot of a Cactus Wren (351/522) on a saguaro cactus, and I’m happy to say it worked out fairly well! I saw and heard this species at several locations in the Tucson and Phoenix, but this was my classic. If I had more time, I’d probably have spent it looking for an even better example!

Numbers in parentheses are their spots on my US list and world list, respectively.
I’m going to start posting my lifers from our rece I’m going to start posting my lifers from our recent trip to Arizona, plus a couple of non-lifers that I’d never photographed before. Starting here with the Gambel’s Quail (349/520) and the Gila Woodpecker (350/521) perched on a saguaro cactus. 

I didn’t get a shot I love of the Gila, so I’m burying it in a carousel 😉🙄😆 That photo is actually from the Saguaro National Park near Tucson.

Numbers in parentheses are their spots on my US list and world list, respectively.
A Harris’s Antelope Squirrel for #nofeathersfriday A Harris’s Antelope Squirrel for #nofeathersfriday - one minute it was there and then it was gone!
Does any species capture #emobirdweek better than Does any species capture #emobirdweek better than the Phainopepla? With its punk hairdo, glossy black feathers, and red eyes, it simply screams goth to me!

They seem to be fairly common in Arizona but TBH it was one of the species I was most excited to see on my recent trip there.
Posting a horizontal shot is unusual for me, but t Posting a horizontal shot is unusual for me, but this Eastern Meadowlark silhouetted by the sunrise stands out a lot more (IMO) in this format. Thanks for humoring me 😉
I’ve spent two days chasing a Henslow’s Sparrow. I I’ve spent two days chasing a Henslow’s Sparrow. I’ve heard it but haven’t seen it…but I did get very clear shots of a Grasshopper Sparrow! This is the regular, migratory subspecies; it’s not the Florida subspecies that breeds in the state.

Please scroll for additional shots ➡️

Both birds are life birds for me. I’m not sure if I’ll continue trying to get a view/photo of the Henslow’s. Depends on how much time I can carve out!
I recently returned from a trip to Arizona. I got I recently returned from a trip to Arizona. I got 40 new life birds, but one of my favorite shots in this species I’ve seen several times in Florida, the male Vermilion Flycatcher. He was just so vibrant and almost appeared to want his photo taken. 

Taken at Prospector Park, Apache Junction, AZ. It’s a neat little park surrounded on all sides by desert, so the birds come in the sports fields to find water. You can also see the nearby Superstition Mountains.

Hat tip to my wonderful guide Gordon Karre. I highly recommend his services.

#vemilionflycatcher #azbirding #arizonabirds #arizonabirding
This male Painted Bunting practically glowed in th This male Painted Bunting practically glowed in the morning light. Honestly I reduced the saturation a tiny amount because it came out so bright from the camera.

Painted Bunting
Passerina ciris
Florida
My resident Ms. Cardinal is so pretty!!! Northern My resident Ms. Cardinal is so pretty!!!

Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis
Florida
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Red-cockaded woodpecker foraging for food in the woods at St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge in Wakulla, Florida (not far from Tallahassee)
Red cockaded woodpecker
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