Pinicola enucleator | Pine Grosbeak | tallbit
Uppland, Sweden - January 2025
I traveled to Bälinge near Uppsala to photograph Pine Grosbeaks. The temperature was a biting -17°C, and I had borrowed a foldable metal ladder from my housing association to bring along. After many hours of effort, I finally managed, in the last rays of sunlight, to set up the ladder and climb to roughly the same level as the birds. This allowed me to capture them without the usual blue sky background from below.
At last, I got a clear shot of a stunning red male—a truly beautiful representative of this species. Pine Grosbeaks are a rare sight around the Stockholm area, only appearing in certain years when they arrive in numbers from the northeast, leaving the coniferous taiga forests in search of rowan berries.
Pinicola enucleator | Pine Grosbeak | tallbit
Uppland, Sweden - January 2025
I traveled to Bälinge near Uppsala to photograph Pine Grosbeaks. The temperature was a biting -17°C, and I had borrowed a foldable metal ladder from my housing association to bring along. After many hours of effort, I finally managed, in the last rays of sunlight, to set up the ladder and climb to roughly the same level as the birds. This allowed me to capture them without the usual blue sky background from below.
At last, I got a clear shot of a stunning red male—a truly beautiful representative of this species. Pine Grosbeaks are a rare sight around the Stockholm area, only appearing in certain years when they arrive in numbers from the northeast, leaving the coniferous taiga forests in search of rowan berries.