Back in 2021, I enjoyed creating a photography compilation blog post about how nature photography helps me combat my depression symptoms. I recently had the idea to do a follow-up blog post about how this favorite hobby of mine has continued to uplift me, especially regarding my bird photos!

Neighborhood Bird Joy

Since the start of 2024, I’ve taken many bird photos on my Canon T3i DSLR camera. I love all of my photos, and I’m grateful for the ones where the birds patiently waited for me to take their picture. Spending so many days walking around with my camera has helped build trust and familiarity with the birds in our neighborhood.

I get a strong sense of comfort when the birds here approach me of their own free will and let me take portrait-style pictures of them. There have been recent times when the wariest of birds, most notably the red-winged blackbirds, will let me come close to them for a good photo. When the red-wings no longer scold me for every little thing they see me do, I’ve made a great trust-building success!

Here are my top five favorite bird pictures (so far, at least!):

An unusually chill male American goldfinch during an evening of enjoying thistle flower seeds
Probably the happiest crow I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting
A male red-winged blackbird pausing to calmly consider me
An adorable male house finch I named “Harvey” perched on our backyard willow tree
Sam the song sparrow, my best bird buddy with afternoon February sunlight on his feathers

I chose these five bird photos because they are significantly heartwarming to me. In these moments, these bird buddies of mine either came to me or let me get incredibly close for a lucky shot.

The Happiest Crow

Out of these five photos, the one that stands out the most regarding unusual bird trust is the crow picture. One April ’24 afternoon, while I was walking home from the end of another neighborhood photography walk, this crow was on top of a nearby house (our house?) and saw me wave at him. In response, he swiftly flew to perch right in front of me on this telephone wire.

A passing neighbor couple was just as shocked as I was! To them, it looked like I’d literally waved him over to me. And it looked like he was beaming at me, too!

I adore our neighborhood crows, and they know it. As much as I can, I wave at them when I see them, which is quite often. While many are still wary of me, some, like this friendly fellow, have openly reciprocated my fascination with them.

My ultimate goal with all birds here is to earn their trust without any food offerings, just familiarity. The crows have certainly caught onto this, and I love it when they pose for my camera.

Avian Photo Models

I’m a photographer with a relatively limited budget and can’t afford the longer zoom lenses used by professional wildlife photographers. Currently, I’m using a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM. It’s a great lens, but its zoom limit of 250mm limits my camera’s capabilities.

That’s where the birds’ familiarity with me comes into play!

When the birds here see me walking, they’ll often perch low on one of the telephone wires and linger for a brief minute. This window of opportunity has helped me take some lucky shots, especially of Sam, my song sparrow buddy.

Sam looking at me

Sam is quite used to my camera at this point. Because we’ve interacted so much, he’s comfortable with me watching him closely as I record him singing another one of his beautiful songs.

One of my favorite Sam songs

Unusual Companions

I have reason to believe that the birds in our neighborhood (most notably Sam) understand now that I genuinely love being with them. Even the red-winged blackbirds have eased up around me, although they will undoubtedly still find reasons to shout “CHECK!” at me and my camera.

A male red-winged blackbird looking utterly unimpressed at me

One of the sweetest bird moments I’ve had was with a red-winged blackbird, perhaps the one in the image above. I almost always see a male red-wing perched on this tree on the corner of our neighborhood, looking like a stern sentry. I can’t tell if it’s always the same male, given that red-winged blackbirds are numerous.

One afternoon, I approached the tree, and the male perched on a low branch, making the classically scornful “Check!” call at me. I tentatively held out two fingers, hoping that, at this point, he’d be comfortable perching on me.

For a moment, he was silent before letting out the sweetest “Tweee!” note and flying away. It sounded like he’d acknowledged my friendship request.

Maybe one day (hopefully soon), I’ll earn an even higher trust with the neighborhood songbirds, enough for them to perch on me or relax by my side. I have a goofy daydream of the neighborhood crows sitting with me while I read a book on our back porch.

Even if these wishes never come to fruition, I’m grateful for my neighborhood’s avian emotional support system!

Sam “saying hello”

Thank you for reading this blog post and enjoying my work! If you’d like to support me further, feel free to “buy me a coffee” (essentially an online tip jar). If you’d like to see more of my photos, check out my Etsy shop for digital prints!