No, American coot, don't go!
#birds 🪶 #PhotoFailFriday #WorstBirdPic

No, Eastern Phoebe, don’t go!

#birds 🌿 #PhotoFailFriday #WorstBirdPic

A long view through leafless trees, so it’s a visual field of browns fading into tans with a bit of pale sky at the top; in the distance at about one o’clock is a large round shape that appears shaggy. This shaggy shape is a bald eagle’s nest.

I don’t always post pictures of a fuzzy blob in some nondescript trees, but when I do it’s bc I tracked a bald eagle from its attempt to nab a fish from my lake back to its nest and partner. The pair -is- visible if you’re good at pattern recognition! 😄(does this count as a #worstbirdpic ? lol) 🪶

Agreed. If you're documenting what a species looks like, removing a stick makes sense. But who's actually doing that? If you're making a calendar to sell, okay I guess. But the folks I know who love birds and photography take part in #StickHappens and #WorstBirdPic.

Unfortunately it is kind of beautiful #WorstBirdPic

Blurry photo of a blurry brown river running through blurry brown trees and blurry scrub. Standing along the blurry river is a tall blurry white bird.

Saw our first Great Egret of the year! Always a great day. I was worried the eBird cop might not believe me so I took a pic. Behold the majestic Great Egret! #worstbirdpic

Railings in front of the sea. In the distance, just before the horizon, there are a couple of blobs surrounded by white fuzziness. The blobs are fishing boats. The fuzziness is a whole mass of birds. But you’ll have to take my word for this. The sky is grey. The picture is a washout in more ways than one. We call these “rabbit pictures” in my household after some pictures my dad took, waiting for ages to take pictures apparently of empty scrubland, but which he insisted had rabbits all over it.

This is the same picture zoomed in on the boats and birds. There is a white wave breaking in the foreground. Further back, the boats look slightly more like boats and not just like blobs, but the birds still just look like white fuzziness. A bit like as if sea foam had accidentally come off the sea and was drifting slightly above it. As my grandmother used to say when she’d told most of a joke and forgotten the punchline, “Well, you should have been there. You’d have roared.”

Now, I realise everyone else who has posted #WorstBirdPic s have actually posted pretty decent photos. However…this is a mass of gulls mobbing fishing boats and I’m posting it because it was amazing irl, but my iPad camera just wasn’t good enough to show it, so it’s hilariously terrible as a photo!

A grainy distant phone image of a Cooper’s hawk perched on a fence with a sunlit hillside beyond.

So, I look out the window thru the anti bird strike ribbons, thru the back patio and Gary is perched in a photographic spot. Good cam is outside, I’m inside with snoozing kitty on my lap… well, maybe tomorrow. Phone cam not quite doing the job 😫🤷‍♂️
#WorstBirdPic #blurd

a sparrow in a bare winter tree covered in naked vines.

ahh I forgot, here's a view of the front. #birds #WorstBirdPic

Speaking of bluebirds, this is a favorite #WorstBirdPic of mine for #PhotoFailFriday. A truly unfortunate #StickHappens moment! 😅

#birds 🌿

In case you didn't believe me about there being a bird. And a fish! Here are all 10 pixels!

#birds #WorstBirdPic #PhotoFailFriday 🌿

A tangle of bare branches covering the whole photo. In the center, if you look very, very carefully is a tiny blue and white bird.

It's #PhotoFailFriday and I bring you this epically terrible Belted Kingfisher photo. A classic perpetrator of the #WorstBirdPic. No really, there is a bird in there. I swear. And it has a fish in it's mouth!

Why on earth did I take this photo? I have no idea

#birds 🌿

Slightly blurry photograph of a small hawk with barred tail and intense orange eyes. It has wings spread as it takes off from its perch on a utility cable.

Surprisingly accurate photo of a Party Pooper (Sharp-shinned Hawk) launching itself toward the bird feeder. The blur is real 😂 #birds #worstbirdpic

A fluffy small bird looks down at the camera. The background is a very unnatural looking blue sky and weird light making it look kind of trippy.

I was trying to rescue this photo from shade and terrible lighting but things went very wrong. However I love the way this chickadee is looking down at me so I'm going with it

#birds 🌿 #WorstBirdPic #OrMoreLikeWorstBackgroundPic

A nuthatch is standing on the top rail of a wooden fence. It has a white face, neck, and belly. Its back is light and dark gray. The bird is a little blurry, oh well. The bush behind is clear.

Thank goodness for #worstbirdpic! Really hoped I had got this White-breasted nuthatch, but no… #blurd

A large white bird is very blurry as it flies away from the camera. A bare tree trunk is in focus in the foreground.

It’s #PhotoFailFriday! Bring out your best worst shots!

Luckily I got a bunch of good shots of this Great Egret before it took off and left my camera focused on the trees.

#WorstBirdPic #birds 🌿

A slightly out of focus, motion-blurred yellow-green bird flies towards the camera

A slightly out of focus, motion-blurred yellow-green bird flies away from the camera

(In case anyone doubted me on how rare it is for these guys to stay still long enough to frame and take a picture, here are the previous and next exposures on my camera roll)

#worstbirdpic

#WorstBirdPic
That's suppose to be an Baltimore Oriole 🙄

Every #WorstBirdPic has new meaning in this age of AI. You can be sure only a human would take and share a photo like this.

AI sucks

The pretty black chair is in focus, the cute male House Finch is not #birds

Does this count as a #WorstBirdPic? I'm rather fond of it.

Every #WorstBirdPic has new meaning in this age of AI. You can be certain that only a human would take and share a photo like this!

AI sucks

(Downy Woodpecker has places to be)
#birds 🌿

A photo mostly of white snow. In the top left, the yellow legs, brown tail banded with white, and the trailing edges of brown wings are seen as a Rough-Legged Hawk takes off from the ground and exits the shot

Got my first photo of a Rough-Legged Hawk this morning 🪶
#Raptors #WorstBirdPic

Ha, lovely #worstbirdpic!
And thx for that. I admit I haven't done that kind of moderation and need to.

Spud, our local leucistic goldfinch. They are not albino but they don't have the darker pigment, so they are essentially the same colour as a boiled potato. Spud is looking slightly to the left of camera as if to say: "Even when I sit still you can't take a decent photo of me!"

A dull fail today, rather than a spectacular one, for #PhotoFailFriday
Here is Spud, the boiled-potato of a bird who I will, one day, get in focus. But not today.
#WorstBirdPic

It’s the Northern Cardinal edition of #PhotoFailFriday!

#birds 🌿 #WorstBirdPic

Silhouette of a tree trunk with a woodpecker on it. Bright gray sky behind.

Went out for our first birding walk of the year and saw one of the most beautiful Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers we've ever seen. You'll have to trust me. #worstbirdpic 🪶

A small single-engine airplane lands at a small airport. An arrow and annotation that says "and it's a Red-tailed Hawk" point to a small dot on the ground in the distance.

On one of the last days of 2025 I chased two rare-ish birds at a small airport, hoping to break a personal birding record. People often see Rough-legged Hawks and Short-eared Owls there. Let’s just say, after over an hour, it didn’t work out. Also pictured: <googles it> a Cirrus SR22.🪶 #worstbirdpic

Let's start off the new year with some photo fails for
#PhotoFailFriday!

The missing head belongs to a Tufted Titmouse. It was standing right there! They move fast! 🪶

#WorstBirdPic

South end of a northbound White-breasted Nuthatch for #PhotoFailFriday #WorstBirdPic #PlacesWhereBirdsWereJustASecondAgo