Sean Williams, 17, is Lab's Featured Photographer

Sean took this photo of a Bald Eagle at Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, this summer.

His classmates call him the "Birdman." Seventeen-year-old Sean Williams has earned the title. Ever since he lured his first bird to a feeder near his South Boston home, he's been hooked.

"It was like a light just shone down on me," he says. "I thought 'Oh man, this is really, really cool that I attracted this cardinal.' I don't even have a backyard; it's a porch. I was sucked in from that point on. Every day after school I would just sit by the window and watch for birds."

Sean's birding took on a new dimension earlier this year when he picked up a professional-quality Nikon D70 digital camera and started photographing his favorite subjects. The spectacular results are on display in a local art gallery and in the "Featured Photographer" gallery on the Lab's All About Birds web site www.allaboutbirds.org.

Sean snapped this picture of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird attracted to a nectar-filled flower.

"I'm definitely going to study field biology and ornithology when I get into college," Sean says. He's already made some inquiries at Cornell. For now, there are birding trips to a "secret" hotspot and new species to be photographed by the talented young Birdman.

—Pat Leonard

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Laura Erickson, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-1114. email: lle24@cornell.edu