Northern Parula

Title

Northern Parula

Artist

Robert McAlpine

Medium

Photograph

Description

The Northern Parula is a small, migratory warbler that breeds in Eastern North America from southern Canada to Florida, and winter in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. They are particularly sensitive to pollution and have been extirpated from some built up areas of their expected breeding ranges.

THE STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE – In the Spring and Fall of 2010, I was particularly interested in photographing warblers and was spending a great deal of time searching for them in the woods and open areas around Ottawa where they were known to frequent. The best time of the year to photograph warblers is during their migrations, in the Spring (especially before the leaves return to the deciduous trees) and in the Fall. Warblers flit in and out of bushes and trees searching for insects, and they are constantly moving and you need to be fast and alert to catch them in the open for a few seconds to grab a picture. Most of your attempts will result in pictures of their tail feathers as they disappear into dense leaves and you covet the rare opportunity of having them pose for you long enough to get that dream shot. This day, in October, was one of those rare opportunities when I caught a Northern Parula in a remarkable pose on a branch with a few leaves and berries on it to add to the composition.

The equipment used for this shot was a Nikon D700 full-frame camera with a Nikkor 300 mm, f/2.8 lens prime lens and a 1.7x teleconverter (an effective focal length of 500 mm). My camera and lens were mounted on a graphite tripod topped with a Jobu Gimbal head. The settings were as follows: ISO 400; aperture f/8; and shutter speed 1/320 sec (Aperture Priority).


Featured in the FAA Group: "Birds of the World" 2014-September-14

Featured in the FAA Group: "Birds in Focus: 2018-May-31

Featured in the FAA Group: "Pure Nature Photography" 2018-July-08

Featured in the FAA Group: "A Birding Group - Wings" 2018-July-16

Featured in the FAA Group: "The 200 Club" - 2018-Sep-14

Featured in the FAA Group: "Ontario Canada" - 2020-03-14

Featured as "Art of the WeeK' in the Group: "Ontario Canada" 2020-03-14

Featured in the FAA Group: "1000 views on 1 Image" - 2020-03-20

Competitions: FAA Contest - "Birds On Trees and Branches" Tied 1st-2nd Place out of 452 entries - 2018-May-02

Competitions: FAA Contest - "One Bird in the Wild Photography" 1st place out of 491 entries - 2018-July-11

Competitions: FAA Contest - "Birds That Migrate" 2-way tie for 1st place out of 165 entries - 2018-Oct-26

Competitions: FAA Contest - "Limited time promotion my best seller" - 1st place out of 137 entries - 2018-Nov-19

Competitions: FAA Contest - "Birds in Nature" - 2nd place out of 1,358 entries - 2019-Jan-30

Competitions: "FAA Contest - Wild Birds Photography" - 2nd place out of 742 Entries - 2019-Feb-23

Uploaded

July 9th, 2014

Statistics

Viewed 1,451 Times  -  Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 04/19/2024 at 9:49 AM

Colors

Embed

Sales Sheet