Comments on: Birds. Photos. Movies.

Birds. Photos. Movies.

ooga_booga — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:27:12 -0800

By: heyho

heyho — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:44:24 -0800

Holy crap, is that cool! Once I figured out how to properly view all the different pics of each bird and listen to their calls, it got super interesting. "Hmmm" point: my cat did NOT like the sound of the Ferruginous Hawk. Not one little bit. Heh.

By: Powerful Religious Baby

Powerful Religious Baby — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:49:32 -0800

African Pygmy Falcon! New national bird of my heart.

By: rtha

rtha — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:50:11 -0800

Your cat should indeed be wary of ferruginous hawks! Unless it's a large cat, in which case, not so much. Thanks for this. These are stunning.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:08:19 -0800

Excellent Birds.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:15:14 -0800

Do people think these were shot in a studio or outside? Because those birds are razor-sharp and absolutely flooded by light. To my amateur eye at least.

By: ooga_booga

ooga_booga — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:17:19 -0800

GuyZero - these were shot in studio conditions at an aviary. If you follow the movie link on the site (damned flash doesn't allow direct linking, alas) you'll see a making-of featurette which is likewise pretty awesome as a how-to-take-photos-of-these-awesome-birds kind of way.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:17:54 -0800

Lit me up like a twelve-wired bird of paradise, man! Also, Verreaux's Eagle Owl sounds like its warming up for a rendition of Bobby McFerrin's greatest hits.

By: ooga_booga

ooga_booga — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:24:28 -0800

One of the things which I liked about this site, despite the no-direct-linking thing, is the inclusion of samples of how the birds sound. Hearing the birdcalls as I look at their pictures makes it a far more immersive experience for me. While even the best screen out there doesn't quite compare to a large coffee-table book, the flash design puts this on a different level than other bird photography sites that I've seen.

By: DakotaPaul

DakotaPaul — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:56:50 -0800

This is great, thanks!

By: sneebler

sneebler — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:01:05 -0800

Fabulous. And we thought we'd have to go to other planets to see alien creatures up close! The first Palm Cockatoo photo in particular.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:02:32 -0800

[this is good]

By: 5_13_23_42_69_666

5_13_23_42_69_666 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:27:02 -0800

I love this soooooooo much

By: potsmokinghippieoverlord

potsmokinghippieoverlord — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:06:52 -0800

O pointy birds o pointy pointy anoint my head, anointy-nointy. - John Lillison, England's greatest one-armed poet.

By: ooga_booga

ooga_booga — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:12:56 -0800

Oh my god, I'd always attributed that poem to Steve Martin. I had no idea that it wasn't he who wrote it. Here's a bit more on John Lillison. Thanks potsmokinghippieoverlord!

By: bearwife

bearwife — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:13:29 -0800

Good thing Audubon isn't alive any more to see this, because he would eat his heart out. Fantastic!

By: fish tick

fish tick — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:26:30 -0800

Fabulous, thanks!

By: jinjo

jinjo — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:03:09 -0800

Wow. Now what do I have to do for it to let me scroll on individual photos? They go off the screen half the time and there's no bar or anything. I want to see the whole pictures!

By: bearwife

bearwife — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:39:16 -0800

Jinjo, click on the little square full screen icon on the upper left of your screen.

By: Cold Lurkey

Cold Lurkey — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:26:06 -0800

I would be all over this book like an owl on a scrap of mouse(reese's pieces?), but alas, books do not have a zoom feature. I just want to drown myself in the vulturine guineafowl's plumage and never look back. Also, I'll confess that I was never sufficiently motivated to install flash 10 until this post... may all my further flash viewings be so spectacular. Thanks ooga_booga.

By: drhydro

drhydro — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:42:10 -0800

Hmm. Full-screen view only gets me a little bit more of da bird.... palm cockatoo, f'rinstance, only from the neck up. Firefox, Safari, Camino, all seem the same. Somehow I think sumpin's not right. Anybody see more than the cockatoo's head? Or maybe I should just not worry. Great pics!

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:07:57 -0800

Don't worry. That's how it's supposed to be.

By: hortense

hortense — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:41:31 -0800

These are really great, much better images than J Audubon

By: tarantula

tarantula — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:25:45 -0800

WOW WOW WOW. Last christmas I gave his book "Animals" to several people. Thanks for the link!

By: MasonDixon

MasonDixon — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:53:42 -0800

Played the clip of the Ferruginous Hawk's call, causing my infant immediate alarm and my dog, also upset, ran in from the other room to stand guard by my child. Some kind of genetic mammal memory going on here?

By: rtha

rtha — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:09:26 -0800

Played the ferrug call and both cats went all ALERT ALERT and sniffed at the laptop; played the golden eagle call and one cat fled. Now I feel bad.

By: sneebler

sneebler — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:14:01 -0800

I used to live in a small apartment with a ferruginous hawk. My roommate would hold a chicken head in his gloved hand, and whistle for the hawk. She would jump into the air from her perch in the living room and fly sideways through the kitchen door, land on his hand, and pry his fingers apart with her feet to get the chicken head. He said she could easily crush his hand, even with the welding glove on, if she'd wanted to. (He was a wildlife biologist with permission to keep this hawk, who had been brought to an animal shelter with a broken wing.) Whenever I walked into the living room, the hawk would hiss and make funny noises at me. Buddy would say, "Well she either wants to mate with you or scare you off." I don't think she liked me well enough for the former.

By: rtha

rtha — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:25:35 -0800

I used to live in a small apartment with a ferruginous hawk. This is one of the greatest sentences in the English language.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:46:06 -0800

This is really cool. Is there really no way to get to the pics without the flash interface?

By: intermod

intermod — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:05:18 -0800

Yeah, unfortunately this doesn't display well on smaller screens, e.g. on netbooks. Oh well.

By: abc123xyzinfinity

abc123xyzinfinity — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:53:01 -0800

This is totally awesome. I highly recommend the about movies, very neat. THanks for the post!

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:08:50 -0800

Wow! what a stunningly beautiful feast of images! Amazing photographs and interesting listening to the sounds as well. Awesome. Thanks.

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:51:23 -0800

(reese's pieces?) I thought she said "meese's pieces".