Decided today that I wanted a BIF shot of a magpie and then proceeded to waste half the day trying to get a decent one. I don't think any were 365 worthy for an individual shot so here is a collage of the better ones. They are pretty difficult to get a good large capture.
In the two shots on the right, the male maggie is taking food back to his chicks. The two on the left is the female.
I'll have another go one day
You have done a great job in getting the magpie in flight. Something I'm yet to do successfully. Great idea to out them in a collage too. Maybe you could get some shots of them swooping some scared pedestrians. That would be a great shot too :)
They are all good shots Terry, I would like your comments on what I said about the Magpies through Candace's feed, you would be far more knowledgable than I, I'm thinking maybe the size difference could be to do with food availability, habitat etc. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
You must have been up quite high to get this great view of them flying - those colors stand out so beautifully. These made a super collage. I do envy you having these lovely birds year round
@ribbet9@dianeburns Hi Diane. I was not aware of any differences in size etc. I have noticed that the magpies that I have seen in Sydney appear to have a lot more white on their backs than ours up here. I suppose that there may well be differences between regions brought about through slight variations in the species being magnified over time trough the process of evolution.
My bird bible makes the point that it was once thought that there were 3 varieties of Magpie, black backed, white backed and western but these are in fact the same species.
I don't know if you are aware but the US and European magpie has a long tail and belongs to the crow family. The only thing it shares with our Oz magpie is the black and white colourings.
Well, my first reaction to seeing this was Wow! They're all impressive images, Terry. Catching any bird in flight is a challenge (and obviously not one I'm any good at as there isn't one BIF image in my collection) and you've done great. Esp. like that top left image. Sharp markings your magpies have.
My bird bible makes the point that it was once thought that there were 3 varieties of Magpie, black backed, white backed and western but these are in fact the same species.
I don't know if you are aware but the US and European magpie has a long tail and belongs to the crow family. The only thing it shares with our Oz magpie is the black and white colourings.