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hummingbird feeder saftey

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Hummingbird Feeder Safety

Hummingbirds are easy to attract to a backyard garden, a cinch to keep well fed, and a joy to watch. These sparkling jewels of summer are easy to love.

But if you don’t take proper care to provide healthy nectar and clean feeders, they’re also an easy bird to love to death.

Hummingbird feeders must be kept clean and free from mold and fungus, or the tiny hum-buzzers you so enjoy could develop a serious and deadly fungus infection. This infection causes the tongue to swell, making it impossible for the bird to feed.

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Written by: Jeff Mann

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Tips for Printing Bird Photos

You’ve taken lots of photos of birds by now, selected the very best ones, put them in your online portfolio and now you’re ready for what comes next: making prints of your very best photographs!

There is a gratification that you get from holding and looking at physical copies of your photos that you will never get seeing them displayed on a computer monitor. Once you have shot many pictures, selected the best. and edited the photos, it’s time to think about printing some to frame and display in your home or office.

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Written by: Jeff Mann

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beginner birder

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The Great Backyard Bird Count is near!

Get a comfy chair and get ready to count feathered critters that visit your backyard from February 14-17th!

Starting Friday, everyone is encouraged to top off their bird feeders with delicious seeds and watch and count the birds that visit for at least 15 minutes. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the National Audubon Society wants everyone with a backyard to count birds—for science; Make a list of the species you see and keep a guide nearby to look up any birds you may be unfamiliar with. Also, count how many of each bird species you see.

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Written by: Jeff Mann

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beginner birder's gull guide cover

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The Beginner Birder’s Gull Guide

Gulls can be confusing! Here are a few tricks to help tell some of the more common gulls apart.

This gull guide is for adult birds only. Gulls get even more tricky than depicted here, due to the fact that juvenile gulls are completely different colors, usually brown with a black bill. Juvenile identification will take more practice, but start with learning the differences between adult gulls, then focus on the young ones. These are the four main gulls I’ve seen in Southern California:

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Written by: Jeff Mann

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spotted towhee before and after editing

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Editing Bird Photos: A Beginner’s Guide

You’ve just returned from your first birding trip with a camera full of photos, now you’re ready to go through them all, edit them, and post them for the world to enjoy. Let’s get started! In this guide I’m going to be showing you how to edit bird photos with Adobe Lightroom CS6. This article shows some of the tweaks I make to my photos before posting them online, but won’t go into the technical things that each change does, you’ll see it for yourself as you edit your own photos.

Why Lightroom instead of Photoshop?

There are two main advantages of using Lightroom to edit your photos.

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Written by: Jeff Mann

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Beginner Birding Mistakes

If you’re thinking about going on your first bird walk or bird outing here are 8 things you should avoid.

1. Wearing Bright Colors

Bright colors like white amplify movement and make you contrast with your surroundings. Subdued earth toned are best. Birds see more color than we do (even UV) so they’ll be sensitive to colors that far contrast what they are used to seeing.

2. Making Loud Noises

Remember to silence your cellphone (if you even have service!), and keep loud talking to a minimum when necessary. If you are trying to get a good shot or spot a bird that’s close-by, you don’t want to scare it away. You’ll eventually get shushed by other birders if you’re a jabber box. This is less important when viewing birds at far distances, like most water birds.

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Written by: Jeff Mann

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eBird: The Gamification of Birding?

Growing up in the ’90s you could definitely consider me a part of the “Pokémon Generation.” Throughout my childhood I played games like Sonic, Zelda, Mario, but the one that seemed to have the biggest impact on me and my friends was Pokémon. We spent countless hours battling, training, trading—but most of all collecting Pokémon.

I confess to still being a fan of the series and continue to play the newest games today (while gleefully passing on “adult” shooter and sports games).

What does this have to do with birds?

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Written by: Jeff Mann

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