View allAll Photos Tagged FallMigration
Fall adult male. The fall plumage is the same as spring but the beak color has lightened. This bird was located near the top of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia. This species breeds in the lower areas of that park but some of this species are already moving south by early August when this image was taken.
It was really neat to try photographing shorebirds this fall. I learned many things, including how changeable the Ottawa River (in the background here) can be, especially in the fall.
This American Pipit spent nearly two weeks along the Lake Ontario shoreline before presumably resuming his/her migration.
Cropped as much as I can without causing the tiny bird to blur more. The bird is just 3.5" from the tip of the long beak to the tip of the tail. Hummingbirds are difficult birds to photograph given their size and fast wing movement. Their little hearts beat 1,260 times a minute, and their wings flap 15 to 80 times a second. I had my shutter speed set to 1/800, I realize now I should have reduced it to 1/1250 ??. Didn't have time to adjust my focal length. This female Ruby Throated Hummingbird is feasting during the Fall Migration in preparation for flying south over the Gulf of Mexico to winter in the warmer climes of Mexico. Any advice on settings for photographing these tiny birds would be most appreciated.
Wir waren auf "Kranichjagd" im Diepholzer Moor und konnten viele dieser wunderschönen Vögel beobachten, wenn auch nur aus weiter Ferne, da sie wirklich extrem scheu sind. An einem Morgen hatten wir dichten Nebel - bei schlechter Sicht waren die Vögel des Glücks etwas entspannter und uns gelangen tolle Nebelfotos.
We went "crane hunting" and were able to observe many of these beautiful birds, albeit only from a far distance as they are extremely shy. One morning we had thick fog with poor visibility and the birds were a bit more relaxed. So we managed to get some great foggy photos.
Fall in the midwest includes migrating meadowlarks. This pair was enjoying the setting sun, making for a striking image.
Little gulls breed on freshwater lakes in Easter and Northeastern Europe and they winter at the Baltic and Northern Sea, Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea costs. There is also a breeding population in the eastern part of North America, around the Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes. These birds are much less often found inland during late fall and winter. This first-year juvenile (most easily identified by the black tip of the tail) made an appearance close to my home town in the southern part of eastern Germany. It was not very shy and clearly enjoyed hunting small fish on an abandoned fish pond, which is nowadays home to a large variety of waterbirds. Interestingly these birds do not only separate breeding and wintering regions, they also prefer different food during different times of the year. Breeding birds mostly hunt insects close to the water surface whereas they hunt small fish and invertebrates in the water during the remainder of the year.
Centennial Olympic Park. Atlanta. 10/21/2017.
This female spent a few days in the park. She came near the water feature for this image, but was a good distance from my position.
Although I saw plenty of males of this species this spring I didn't accomplish what I wanted photographically. So this female makes an entrance to my 2017 eastern warblers that I've shared to date on Flickr, as number 30. There are 37 eastern warblers that occur regulary east of the Mississippi.
A cool fact from Cornell
"Tundra Swans breed in the remote arctic of North America. Parents defend their nests and young against a host of predators including foxes, weasels, wolves, and bears, as well as birds such as Glaucous Gulls, Common Ravens, Parasitic Jaegers, Pomarine Jaegers, and Golden Eagles."
The fall migration was much richer in variety here in Ottawa than the spring, northbound migration had been. Weather conditions and other factors shape these things, and we are excited when there is a lot of activity and variety - so the spring was a bit bleak (pandemic influence was a factor for sure) and the fall picked up a lot of spirits among birders.
I was able to get out fairly often, and was introduced to the subtleties and challenges of post-breeding colours and challenging identifications. Since I began using a camera for the birding purpose of post-sighting identification I returned to my roots, in a way, especially with the Bay-breasted/Blackpoll nuances. I had never seen either bird in the fall, or in Ottawa (at least to my knowledge) and the differences in the field can be a bit tricky. This bird retained some traces of colour on its flanks and was a lot easier than some of the other birds, and once I learned to start with the feet (not always a guarantee, but Blackpolls tend to have yellow/orange feet) I was getting better with each outing.
While it is true that the fall birds can seem somehow faded, they are quite beautiful in their own right. My friend and mentor Paul Jones, who helped me a lot in figuring some of the field marks out, speaks very energetically about the beauty of the subtler plumage and the very active fall helped me to see some of the range of that beauty.
Centennial Olympic Park. Atlanta GA. 11/10/2017.
There are a lot of similarities in appearance between the Tennessee and Orange-crowned warblers, especially when seen from a side or top down view. Orange-crowned warblers have a more yellow undertail covert compared to Tennessees who in contrast are always lighter in the undertail covert area than the remainder of the underside. Orange-crowneds like Tennessees have a dark eye line but they also have a split white eye ring, and don't have a lighter colored stripe (supercilium) above the eye like Tennessees. Finallly the Orange-crowned has a longer tail. See my previous post for a comparison.
This is eastern warbler species 36 for 2017. Only Pa1m warbler remains to be added to this album.
Both of these birds have very limited pale yellow in the lores (above the eye near the beak) and along with some white feathering seen in each in the chin area above the yellow throat. Both birds therefore may be of the subspecies albilora which is known to nest in large sycamores that are near streams. More commonly we encounter subspecies dominica here in Georgia and they nest often in tall pines. I usually encounter both subspecies during fall migration, and encounter breeding albilora in Tennessee and Kentucky most Springs when I travel there.
The fall male looks much like the spring male except the bold black side stripes are often less bold due to some white feathering and there may be slight brownish hues in the grayish back. The first fall female is the dullest of all plumages as you can see by her very muted black side stripes, the absence of black in the crown (except for a thin line near the white supercilium), the reduced black in the face, and the lesser amount of yellow in the throat area. In addition the first fall female has noticeable buff in the sides/flanks and very noticeable brownish wash to her back.
Fall adult females and first fall males look similar and are intermediate between these plumages. It is difficult in the field or with images to age and sex this species except at the extremes of plumage.
Fall adult Golden-winged warblers look very similar to Spring adults but the adult male's beak changes from black in the Spring to a lighter shade in the fall. Check out the beaks of the adult males from Spring in my photostream or in my Golden-winged warbler album for a comparison.
Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia.
of this blessing the day after a three day back yard demolition (through the filthy back door). This Hooded Warbler was such a wonderful surprise and the first in this yard! I've ony seen one other one EVER! Okay, okay, last lousy shot!
See first comment for more information.
By far the best shot I have ever done of this beauty. Not a lifer, but a beautiful bird, on Lake Apopka in the Willows, on my driver's side, and posing! Thank you, Jesus! I am blessed and highly favored to have gotten to be there for such a time as this!
This is a warbler that is rare here in Georgia in both spring and fall migrations but a very common breeder much further north. For example in Michigan, especially the upper peninsula, it is ubiquitous. I suspect this is either a first fall male or an adult female as there is too much contrast and color to be a first fall female and probably not enough to be an adult male.
The most common bird the weekend we went to lake Erie, by a large margin, was the blackpoll. Depressingly, these are the best shots I got of this multitude...
Georgia mountains. Have seen a lot of these migrating south this season. Most are yellow-lored but have had a couple white-lored. This individual has some brownish tones dorsally and also in the flanks indicating it is likely either a first fall male or an adult female. In addition there is not much black on the cap, just some black laterally, which also goes along with that. Adult males tend to have more black on the cap and no brownish tones along with bolder black side stripes. However in the fall those black side stripes are somewhat veiled in white feathers so they appear less bold in all plumages.
This composite shows a fall adult male below and a first fall male above. The fall adult male plumage shows the spring white wing panel is replaced by a pair of wing bars and the areas of black are now stippled with olive. The orange areas are less intense in color and the beak color has lightened. First fall male Blackburnians classically have yellow in the throat and face areas rather than orange. Fall adult females look somewhat similar but they have less bold black markings than the first fall male. These birds were photographed the same day in the same oak tree in late July along with a first fall female in the Georgia mountains. They do breed in the area they were photographed but this species is also already moving south by that date as well.
Centennial Olympic Park. Atlanta. I had not been to this downtown park since the pandemic but returned for a few visits this fall. It has the effect of concentrating migrants that are caught in the city, some of whom eventually make their way to the park. This is a late date for this species. It is such a beautiful bird and I am always struck by the dramatic change in beak color from spring to fall. In the spring the beak is black and in the fall it becomes a beautiful pinkish color.
A Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) perched in a dead snag along a country road southeast of Todield, Alberta, Canada.
29 September, 2025.
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