Close Encounters of the Regent Bowerbird Kind
December 2006
We bird photographers spend thousands on giant mega-lenses, with powerful teleconverters to increase the magnification still further, plus image stabilizers and enormous tripods to keep everything steady. We kill our backs lugging all this stuff around in order to get large enough images of our elusive subjects. Then along comes an opportunity where you’re so close it’s almost ridiculous.
That’s the situation outside the famous O’Reilly’s Guesthouse in Lamington National Park, QLD. The male Regent Bowerbird, resplendent in black and gold plumage, is the prize here. Earlier this morning I’d seen a few frustratingly far away, but when a tour guide leading a group of birders produces a handful of raisins just outside the lodge and is immediately surrounded by Regent and Satin Bowerbirds, I can’t believe my eyes. The Regents are feeding from people’s hands!
It’s not as easy as it sounds, though. First the birds are gathering on a very unnatural looking white picket fence with a background of colorful exotic shrubs—not my favorite kind of perch. I’m always thinking about the salability of a photograph, and this one doesn’t quite cut it since bowerbirds are creatures of the rainforest. But head and shoulders shots are useful too, and these birds are tame and close enough for that even using just a 300mm lens with a 1.4X converter. Second, they fly off immediately after grabbing a raisin, so I hardly have much time to compose. Fortunately, one male Regent lands in a tree in the background, so I’m able to get a more natural pose and environment.
And when the raisins are gone, it’s all over!