birding @lemmy.world EvilTed @lemmy.world 9 mo. ago

A squabble of Starlings? (More pics in post)

Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Nikon D850, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f/7.1, 1/2000s, ISO 800, 200mm

Every year, we have many pairs of starlings breeding in our locality. We have bird feeders in the garden all year round, but when the starlings bring their young to them, it is really hard to keep them filled.

As a consequence of their generally rowdy behaviour and competition for food, we often get squabbles breaking out. It also means I can get very close to them, as they are generally oblivious to anything but the food and their disputes.

17 comments

Spectacular photos! And you didn't even have to leave the backyard?👌
- Thank you 😊
  
  Yes, I'm pretty lucky, we get a lot of birds in our garden. I can see the feeder from where I'm sitting, it's got blue, great and long tailed tits on it right now.
  
  That's wonderful! We set up a feeder that has a built-in camera several months ago. It's been fun to see them through the camera (we get alerts when it identifies a bird).
  
  Sometimes I get lucky, and I'm able to poke a camera out the door to snap a few photos, but nothing as special as your shots!
Wow you really catch the essence of the bird 😀
- Cheers casmael 👍
  
  So I don’t think EvilTed is actually all that evil…
Very nice photos. Is the particularly pale one just a local special or a young one as the starlings round here (Reading, UK) seem all to be speckled black and iridescent?
- Thanks Kevin
  
  The pale ones are juveniles, they are probably 3-4 weeks out of the nest at this point. There's an adult ringing the neck of a youngling in the top photo and obviously the last one is an adult as well.
  
  How are you getting on with your new lens?
  
  Hah, someone who pays attention to poster names & history :)
  
  The new lens has pluses & minuses, but overall I think I'm happy:
  
  The weight, and so the difficulty of holding it on target at 800mm is very noticeable (compared to the 600mm F11). VERY.
  
  There's nothing to lock the zoom in place, even just "fully closed" - this means it often extended as I pull it out of my camera bag - the "tight or loose" ring seems of limited value
  
  it seems a little slow at coming into focus (but then at 800mm you'd expect it would be slower than a fixed 600mm)
  
  I'm not (yet?) fast enough/with it enough to change zoom dynamically (e.g. as a bird flies overhead)
  
  But after all that, the little bit extra aperture and length do seem to noticeably better shots at the limits
  
  The "AF off" button (to hold the AF distance while pressed) is definitely interesting, and I need to improve my use of it

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