I Claim this Pond in the Name of...Me! Female Belted Kingfisher, Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in Portland, Oregon. She was flying between strategically selected perches around the big pond, pausing a while at each one to display and call. Square image: a branch of a fallen tree juts up diagonally, entering the frame just above the lower left corner, and continuing up until it is slightly past the midpoint of frame both vertically and horizontally. The kingfisher is perched at the tip of the branch, in profile to the camera, facing to camera right, with its tail and crest raised, and mouth open as it calls. The medium-sized bird has grey-blue, white-spotted, wings and tail. Its chest is white, broken by belts of reddish, black feathers. The neck is white, and the head is dark grey/black. In the background, heavily blurred by the extreme telephoto lens, is a tangle of fallen trees in the shallow waters of the pond.

Female Belted Kingfisher, Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, Portland, OR. She was flying between perches around the big pond, pausing at each one to display and call.

#Birds #BirdPhotography #WildlifePhotography #BirdsofOregon #naturePhotography #photography #oaksBottomWildlifeRefuge #BeltedKingfisher

A song sparrow seems annoyed that it's dropped its seed pod. Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in Portland, Oregon. Vertical image: a thin branch, barely bigger than a twig, descends diagonally from the upper left corner of the frame down to the bottom right corner, where it ends in a set of leaves and white berries/seed pods. About 1/4 of the way down, a song sparrow perches on the branch, right leg tucked up under its body and left leg stretched down the branch to keep its balance on the steep incline. The sparrow is dark grey/brown on top, with thick dark stripes on the chest which transition to a mostly white belly. There's a wispy white seed thing from a nearby tree stuck to the sparrow just above the right leg. The bird's beak is open, and it's looking at the white seed pod that it just dropped as it falls towards the forest floor. The pod is slightly blurred due to motion, and is in the gap between the bird's belly and left leg. The sparrow is almost completely framed by green leaves in the background.

F--- Me, I Dropped Me Breakfast!

A song sparrow seems annoyed that it's dropped its seed pod. Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in Portland, Oregon.

#Birds #BirdPhotography #WildlifePhotography #BirdsofOregon #naturePhotography #sparrow #photography #BirdAllianceofOregon #SongSparrow #oaksBottomWR

A pied-billed grebe navigates a tricky part of the shallows in the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in Portland, Oregon. Horizontal image, 2:1 aspect ratio. The grebe is just slightly above and to the left of frame center, traveling right-to-left across the frame. It's looking back over its shoulder slightly, as if it were keeping an eye on the cameraman. The grebe is brown and gray, with a medium length curved neck. The beak is grey-white with a distinct, thick black band about a third the way up from the tip. The eye is black, surrounded by a white ring. The bird is navigating a stretch of shallow water through what appears to be a thicket of long dead saplings, bleached almost white and snapped off short near the water line by time and tide, wind and sun.

A pied-billed grebe navigates a tricky part of the shallows in the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in Portland, Oregon. A first for me.

#Birds #BirdPhotography #WildlifePhotography #BirdsofOregon #naturePhotography #PiedBilledGrebe #photography #BirdAllianceofOregon #waterBird

An immature bald eagle checks out the scene from a high branch at the edge of Indian Beach in Ecola State Park in Oregon on a foggy morning. 2:1 aspect ration horizontal image. The eagle is just off center, perched on a thick branch that extends from one side of the frame to the other, parallel to the bottom. Its body is facing away from the camera, but it has its head turned around to look back over its right shoulder. Misty evergreen trees are visible in the background.

An immature bald eagle checks out the scene from a high branch at the edge of Indian Beach in Ecola State Park in Oregon on a foggy morning.

#Birds #BirdPhotography #WildlifePhotography #BirdsofOregon #naturePhotography #BaldEagle #Raptor #photography #EcolaStatePark

An American Crow flies off with a beak full of fish it plucked off the beach in Ecola State Park on the Oregon Coast. Horizontal image: the crow is moving right-to-left across the frame. It's black, and its wings are outstretched. Curiously, there appear to be almost matched holes in the wing feather about 4/5s of the way up each wing towards the tips. It legs are partially tucked up. The crow's nictitating membrane covers it eyes, perhaps to protect it from a fish tail or sand dislodged by the winds of flight. The crow's beak is utterly filled with small fish, almost overflowing., with fish heads and tails sticking out of both sides of its beak. You can barely make out the gentle surf and sand behind the bird, as the combination of telephoto lens and short range have combined to blur the background into abstraction.

An American Crow flies off with a beak full of fish it plucked off the beach in Ecola State Park on the Oregon Coast.

#Birds #BirdPhotography #WildlifePhotography #BirdsofOregon #naturePhotography #Crow #Corvid #photography #EcolaStatePark #OregonStateParks

Mallard chick on a solo swim seemingly happy with it's life so far. Two crops of the same photo taken in Ashland OR along a path in Lithia Park.

#mallard #oregonbirds #birds #raw_birds #bestoftheusa_birds #bestbirdshots #birdphotos #birds_perfection #birdsoforegon #omsystem #om1markii #micro43

American Robin along a park path in Ashland Oregon.

#birds #photography #naturalists #americanrobin #oregonwildlife #oregonbirds #birds_perfection #birdsoforegon #omsystem #om1markii #micro43

Don't piss off a magpie #birds #birdsoforegon #magpie #redtailhawk #wildlife #photography

Photo of Black-capped Chickadee perched in Willow tree. Bird is just above center, surrounded by greens and browns of Willow branches and leaves

Black-capped Chickadee in Willow tree🪶
#birds #birdsofbluesky #myphotos #suburbanwildlife #birdsoforegon

Photo of Dark-eyed Junco bathing in a birdbath

Another backyard visitor
#photography #birds #birdsofbluesky #wildlife #birdsoforegon

Photo of Dark-eyed Junco bathing in birdbath.

Bath time
#birds #birdsofbluesky #oregonjunco #photography #birdsoforegon #wildlife

American Dipper, the curious little bird that first hooked me into birding (not this Dipper specifically!). Thanks lil buddy!

#birds #birding #birdersofbluesky #birdphotography #birdsoforegon

An almost-in-my-backyard afternoon visitor.
#GreatEgret #BirdsOfOregon #WildlifePhotography #PNWNature #OregonBirds #PacificNorthwest #Wetlands

Rough-legged Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk

I did winter #raptor surveys for many, many many years for East Cascades Bird Alliance. Seeing beautiful Rough-Legged Hawks was one of my favorite parts!

#birds #birding #birdsoforegon #hawk #hawks #birdphotograpy #birdersofbluesky