BIRDS AND THE CAMERA 



BY A. A. ALLEN, Ph.D., 

 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ORNITHOLOGY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY 



AS the present wide-spread knowledge of birds has 

 grown and the study of the living creature has super- 

 seded the study of the dried museum specimen, 

 nothing has done more to attract public notice or to main- 

 tain and increase interest than has bird photography. 

 With the use of the camera in recording the habits of birds 

 and bringing graphically before the world, not only the 

 birds themselves but their interesting ways and their work 



It is quite possible to convey an erroneous impression 

 of a bird by means of the camera either because of the 

 bird's fear or merely because of the limitations of the lens 

 and the fore-shortening that often appears when objects 

 are photographed at close range. To be of the greatest 

 value, the photograph must show the bird in a natural 

 and characteristic pose ; it must show the bird's character- 

 istic markings, and the bird must be doing some charac- 

 teristic thing. The photograph must express the bird to the 

 very best advantage. Unfortunately a relatively small 

 percentage of the bird photographs taken come up to this 

 standard and are perfect in every respect. Even of those 



THE FIRST SWIMMING LESSON 



The camera gives us glimpses of the intimate life of birds that few persons 

 would have the time or patience to seek out for themselves. The newly hatched 

 Pied-billed Grebe is taking its first swim. 



in destroying injurious insects, it is little wonder that 

 thousands of persons have awakened to an appreciation 

 which formerly was impossible. By means of the photo- 

 graphic plate, the lantern slide, and the half-tone repro- 

 duction, one is now permitted to see glimpses of birdland 

 that most people have neither the time nor the patience 

 to hunt out for themselves. The photograph and the 

 motion picture now bring to all nature lovers the exultant 

 sensations which before were the special privilege of the 

 naturalist when, after hours of exertion, he at last suc- 

 ceeded in lifting the curtain, exposing for a moment the 

 intimate life of the wild bird. 



But the naturalist still gets his reward through sensa- 

 tions a hundred times more poignant than the feelings 

 of those who merely view his pictures, and for this reason : 

 the number of naturalist photographers is ever increas- 

 ing. With the greater number of photographers and the 

 advance in photographic equipment, standards of photog- 

 raphy have been greatly raised, so that to-day the per- 

 fect photograph is not only a portrait of the bird, photo- 

 graphically correct and artistically arranged, but it is the 

 one which also depicts more fully and more accurately 

 than any pen picture ever could some incident in the bird's 

 life. Such a picture has scientific value. It is more than 

 a photograph, it is more than a portrait, it is a fact per- 

 manently expressed in the most accurate manner possible. 

 154 



SNAPPED WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE 



A feeding station for photographing birds near a window. The camera is con- 

 cealed beneath the box at the right and focused on the branch where one sees 

 the chickadee. 



taken by expert bird photographers, the majority are 

 faulty, for there are so many difficulties to combat. 



First, there is the finding of the nest or the feeding 

 place suitable for photographing, within reach of the cam- 

 era and in sufficient light unspotted by shadows ; then the 

 bird must be tamed or accustomed to the blind and cam- 

 era ; the weather must be favorable with sun but no wind ; 

 the bird must come within the much-restricted focus of 

 the camera; and when all these difficulties are surmounted, 

 the photographer must wait until the bird assumes some 

 characteristic pose before making the exposure. Then if 

 the bird is not alarmed by the click of the shutter a good 

 picture will result provided of course there are no me- 

 chanical defects in the camera, shutter, plate holder, or 

 plates and that development is performed correctly. If 



