I never had one of these at my feeder. Was zeroing in on it because of it's black head, gonna pop it with my air rifle, till i saw it was some kind of..... Oriole? so i took a picture of it instead.

Sony DSC 828 @7 power, and 2x magnification.



It was only about 40 foot away. The green focus light was on, not blinking so it should have been in focus. It's not as clear as i'd like, because through the scope i could see it had orange eyes, but you can't see its eye clearly in the picture. Anybody have any suggestions or know for sure what kind of bird it is?

Plinker

It's a Rufous-sided Towhee. You're looking at the male - the female is similar, but brown where the male is black.

Thank you! After you said the name, i was able to look up on internet, and that i'm sure you're right. It even had the orange eyes.

Should that picture have been better? I feel like i'm not doing very good, because i can see it's not overly clear and detailed. Can anybody suggest how to take better pictures? Do you have to use a tripod? Because that would be pretty impossible to go set up a tripod every time a photo opportunity came along. Unless i left the camera on tripod all the time. Anybody, feel free to make suggestions.

Erict, thanks again for the ID. BTW, it came back again today.

Plinker

OH yes, now that's NICE! I want to get even half that good, those look great.

Was just getting back on here to say i just realized one thing that might be wrong. I've got the picture quality set down low to get more pictures on the card. Will turn it up (DUH).

The Tohee seems to like it here. I'll try to set up with a tripod and get something better when the sun is shining and post it.

Thanks for showing those pictures, they're excellent.

Plinker

Correction - the name was changed a little while back - it's now called an "Eastern Towhee".

They prefer a mixture of oats, suet and seeds at feeders.

They are also often prey to the antics of cowbirds. A female cowbird has the habit of finding other birds nests, then laying 1 egg in 10-36 nests per year. The cowbird egg usually hatches before the others, so it is the first to begin getting fed by the host mother! (If you decide to do some plinking, the cowbird is obviously a better candidate!)

As far as the pic goes, you may also want to read your manual about changing the "f-stop" - this will allow you to have the subject in focus, but leave the background blurry - see Outdoor Writer's bottom pic for a good example of how to bring more attention to the subject. Good luck.

Use max resolution (buy extra cards), use a tripod or other rest.Use point focus instead of averaging focus.