Getting good images of birds in flight has always been a challenge. Although improved camera technologies have made it much, much easier to take quality photos of birds in flight, it still requires a fair amount of practice and just plain old good luck.
It helps, though, when you have thousands of subjects to work with. Plan your shots, shoot away, and you can go home with a catalogue of beautiful images.
Lots of Laughing Gulls in flight and American White Pelicans on the ground.
The image above captures the rich avian essence of Laguna Atascosa but shots of individual birds usually have more character. Brown Pelicans have a ton of personality. They are big birds and whether they take flight or come in for a landing, you can expect a lot of splashing action.
Brown Pelicans are big, hefty birds!
Egrets tend to be a lot more graceful than pelicans. Great Egrets are a common bird in southern Texas and it’s always a pleasure to watch and photograph these beautiful, big, white birds.
A beautiful, snow-white Great Egret.
Laguna Atascosa was set aside as a national wildlife refuge principally for ducks. It’s certainly a great place for waterfowl photography, and a reliable site for getting shots of ducks in flight. Redheads are especially common and if you wait long enough, you can usually get some very nice images of them as they fly past.
A handsome male Redhead at Laguna Atascosa.
Ducks are fast flying birds. They need to be quick to migrate long distances between the scarce wetlands they use on their breeding and wintering grounds and to escape the clutches of the even quicker Peregrine Falcon. Many have fairly long, pointed wings that help them fly far and fast. That wing shape is demonstrated by the Northern Pintail shown below.
A male Northern Pintail spreading its wings.
When taking pictures of flying ducks, it’s hard not to also capture images of the gorgeous Roseate Spoonbill, especially when one is showing such bright pink colors as the one below!
A lovely Roseate Spoonbill.
I hope you enjoyed these images of birds from southern Texas, I know I enjoyed taking them!