The tools for bird photography are a good lens and patience. That and being in the right place at the right time. Here are some photos. Most were taken by me (Alan), some are by my daughter, Emily.
Birds and their stories…
Updated July 2026
Carolina Wren is a small but vocal bird with a call that can be mistaken for a cardinal if you aren’t paying attention.
Favorite Food? A protein eater (see the narrow bill, ideal for grabbing small bugs?), it does hang around feeder area, usually on the ground. Year round resident.
Cedar Waxwing is one of the hidden gems of the birding world. It has a Robin Hood-esque mask, a red, waxy substances on its wings (hence the name), and subtle colors. This photo from a service berry bush at the Falls of the Ohio.
Favorite Food? Fruit, especially mulberries and service berries. I’ve seen them eat apple blossoms.
Canada Goose used to be an over-hunted species. Now that it’s federally protected, it has become a nuisance and can be hunted in season. This pair in the Ohio River is trailed by their goslings.
Favorite Food? Grass, like mowed short and easy to bite off. They make “mine fields.” These birds are herbivores.
Some Canada Geese take on babysitting duty for other couples. There is no way for a goose to lay 22 eggs! In the Ohio River.
Double-crested Cormorant is a pelagic bird of large bodies of water. They spend more time in the water than flying.
Favorite Food? Fish, fish, and more fish. It dives to catch its food, but must eat it above the water or it would drown.
Two male goldfinches in a red bud tree, April 2024, Brown County State Park, Indiana
Favorite Food? For me, it’s Golden Glow, Rudbeckia lacinata – a tall, shade-loving coneflower; Gray Headed Coneflower, Ratibida pinnata, Sunflowers (black oil seed source), and Purple Coneflower Echinacea purpurea. I don’t have luck with niger thistle feeders.
Bald Eagle with a fish at the Falls of the Ohio, 2015.
Favorite Food? Fish, but they are also scavengers and will eat dead deer in fields.
Blue Jay on my porch grabbing a peanut.
Favorite Food? Peanuts. As this photo shows. But they will eat a variety of seeds.
Lesser Scaup, a diving duck, in the Ohio River. Note the blue bill.
Favorite Food? Forages on mollusks and aquatic plants, dives more than dabbles. Will eat aquatic insects, generally in the winter.
Brown-headed Cowbird admiring itself in a car mirror at the Falls of the Ohio State Park.
Favorite Food? Seeds. These are parasitic birds, laying eggs and removing eggs of other birds. I don’t try to attract them to my feeders!
Common Grackle on sycamore at the Falls of the Ohio. They are large than red-wing black birds, have vivid yellow eyes and iridescent blue on their head.
Favorite Food? As an omnivore, their diet is broad. I don’t see them at my feeders very often, but I’m firmly suburban.
Northern Cardinals are a popular state bird. This male sings in a shrub at the Falls of the Ohio.
Favorite Food? Black oil sunflower seed is a favorite. Don’t waste your feeder on smaller seeds, unless you like House Sparrows.
Red-bellied Woodpeckers have a red head, but but aren’t the same as red-headed woodpeckers. This is on a tree (not the nest hole on the left) in Brown County State Park, Indiana.
Favorite Food? Bugs! Protein in the winter from suet feeders. This adaptable woodpecker resides where there are trees.
A Red-wing Blackbird puffs out his chest when calling. It’s arrival in the Ohio Valley is a harbinger of spring. Falls of the Ohio State Park.
Favorite Food? A seed eater, it lives in wetlands with fields, especially where you find cattails.
An American White Pelican has an 8-foot wing span, one of the largest in the U.S. It’s a freshwater pelican. Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio.
Favorite Food? Fish, of course. This pelican is becoming more common in the Ohio Valley. The lakes near the Mississippi River (its flyway to nesting grounds in central Canada) see good numbers in the winter and during migration.
Favorite Food? Fish. It nests in trees and platforms near bodies of water, large and small, fresh, brackish, or salt water.
