With the beginning of spring, the days get longer and the birds awaken to seemingly new life. For the males now the time of the highest activity begins. Everyone is keen to conquer a territory and find a mate. For this purpose, the birds have developed a variety of optical and acoustic methods, and specific behaviors in the course of their evolutionary history.
Singing is probably the most common type of attracting a mate among birds. In contrast to the calls produced by both sexes and which can be heard all year, singing is usually presented only by the males during the mating season. Many of our native birds here in Germany, such as Robins, Tits or Blackbirds start to sing already in late winter. Thus they are among the most striking signs of spring. Then gradually new voices add to the concert until the end of May when all the birds are back from their wintering grounds. Now the whole choir is fully assembled. A particularly loud singer is the Great Reed-Warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus).
Since ancient times, people were inspired by the beauty of bird songs, and so many gifted artists expressed this fascination in their songs and poems. The heart of every nature lover beats higher when outside in the park, in the field or in the forest they can listen to the bird song polyphonic.
The variety of birds voices is almost overwhelming, because each species has its own distinctive voice. Thus the verses are also audible as far as possible, they need to be a loud enough for others it should be carried forward as possible from an elevated position?
Bird species such as the larks were originally housed in the treeless steppes, so their singing verses carry mainly found in flight. Also Redpolls, Tree Pipit and Linnet living in the open cultural landscape, show off courtship flights during which they sing. Warblers and Whinchats which live in the dense bush start air games from time to time during courtship. Everything to make a visual attention. Birds that live in the dense forest, such as finches, thrushes, bullfinches and greenfinches, climb to elevated treetops to make their voice heard from high above. Even Robin, Dunnock and House wrens, usually present in the dense undergrowth, go to sing on higher ground branches. Others – as shown – in this blog even show courtship flights.
Each of these singers utilize certain perches. These are visited regularly most frequently during the morning hours. Thus the females on the one hand facilitates the identification of the males, while the other, the neighbors are made aware of the existing territory.
Birds which have their song perches not too high are usually easier to photograph. Is the most appropriate perch once discovered by the photographer, you only need to wait in e.g. a camouflage tent set up at a suitable distance and wait until the bird show-up again. Another circumstance which favors the photographers task is the fact that many males are so busy with the courtship and the defending the territory against the neighbors that they perceive the approaching photographers often very late.
To cope with the growing demand for top shots of the rarer species of the Palearctic Bird-Lens is keen to enrich the range of pictures of birds you can find in the western palearctic. Trips to remote places like the Macin Mountains in Romania or to tourist spots like the Canaries (also) to capture images of rare birds of western palearctic were very successful. The nice images you find in the gallery are only a first impression, what you will find in the gallery in the “Pictures Shop” very soon. Just give me a message, if I could serve you with an image needed before the new pictures are online.
Other successful shootings you can see under: www.bird-lens.com