Featured Artist, January, 2002 at www.dappersdigitals.com, which apparently no longer exists.

I am currently making major updates to this section. The larger photos are on the revised pages, working from page 1 to the end. If you find a broken link or anything, be aware I know about it, and I will fix it as soon as I get to it. Most of these birds were photographed in the wild, including a few of the exotic species. Most of the exotic species were photographed in captivity, but in a natural setting. I almost always hand-hold, and I have lenses that go up to 1300mm. Especially, I hand-hold shots of birds in flight. They simply move too fast for me to keep up with them on a tripod. I usually shoot birds in flight with less zoom. I use Pentax cameras, for two reasons. One is that the image stabilization is in the camera, so I can use any old lens, and the other is that I have a bunch of old lenses that fit Pentax. :) I also often use telephoto lenses for macro shots.

I have included a few leucistic birds. For purposes of information, a leucistic bird is a bird that has mostly white feathers and coloring. They're not quite albinos. An albino would be all white, with a pink eye. The explanation I heard is that they lack the energy to create the pigment that makes their feathers a more normal color. Needless to say, these birds are rare, because predators find them easily, I presume.

This section includes LOTS of hummingbirds! There are sixteen species of hummingbirds in the Sonoran Desert. I have photographed fourteen of them.

The hummingbirds of the Sonoran Desert frequent the deep-throated flowers of the Sonoran Desert, including Trumpet Vine (Tecoma stans) and Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens). I have photos of these species in my plant section. The hummingbird in flight in my fourth gallery is sipping from a Slipper Flower. This plant is poisonous, but the nectar is very tasty! There is a description of the Ocotillo in my science notes section. It also has tasty nectar, which can be sucked from the flowers in the same manner as the nectar of the Honeysuckle. In gallery one, there is a photo of a Gambel's Quail. These beautiful birds nest on the ground. They make a soft chuckering noise to their young, and their mating cry is lovely. We often see a pair of parents followed by a large number of babies, up to 25. I also have a series of photos of young mourning doves. The mother decided to take up residence in our chicken aviary, and she raised three broods of two each. All survived and were released.

I also have extensive galleries of birds at flickr:

Arizona Birds

Arizona Hummingbirds

Tropical Birds

The following species of hummingbirds appear in these photographs. The English, Spanish (if available), and zoological names are given. Links here and below are to external sources of information.

Anna's Hummingbird - Chupaflor Cuello Escarlata, Colibrí Coronirrojo - Calypte anna
Black-Chinned Hummingbird - Chupaflor Barbinegro, Colibrí Gorjinegro - Archilochus alexandri
Blue Throated Hummingbird - Chupamirto Garganta Azul - Lampornis clemenciae
Broad-Billed Hummingbird - Chuparosa Matriquita - Cynanthus latirostris
Broad-Tailed Hummingbird - Chupaflor Cola Ancha, Colibrí Vibrador, Chupaminto Cola Ancha - Selasphorus platycercus
Costa's Hummingbird - Chuplaflor Garganta Violeta, Colibrí Costa, Colibrí Coronivioleta Desértico - Calypte costae
Magnificent Hummingbird - Cupamirto Verde Montero - Eugenes fulgens
Rufous Hummingbird - Chupaflor Dorado - Selasphorus rufus
Plain-capped Starthroat - Colibrí Picudo - Heliomaster constantii
Lucifer Hummingbird - Chuparrosa - Calothorax lucifer
Violet-crowned Hummingbird - Amazilia violiceps
Berylline Hummingbird - Amazilia beryllina
White-eared Hummingbird - Chuparrosa o Colibrí Oreja - Hylocharis leucotis
Calliope Hummingbird - colibrí garganta rayada - Stellula calliope

The photos of hummingbirds are mixed in with all the other bird photos because I felt like doing it that way. :) They are easy to find because each thumbnail of a hummingbird has a tag that identifies it. I also mixed in the tropical birds. I may change that later, but that's the way it is for now.

This section also includes a couple of photographs of my pet peacock, Noisy. Other photos include some of the usual blue peacocks of India, and the rarer white peacocks.

I kept peacocks for a number of years. I absolutely love their beauty, their aloof manner, and their call. I tried breeding peacocks with no success, alas! I tried both hatching their eggs in an incubator, and also allowing the mother to set. Unfortunately, our climate seems to destroy peacock eggs with heat before they are able to hatch, at least on my property. Although people here do raise peacoocks, I don't have any idea how they do it.

More species of birds are listed below.

Please note: right-clicking on thumbnails does NOT work. Left-clicking automatically opens a new window. The thumbnails stay loaded on your browser for quick response. Clicking on either the corner x or the up arrow automatically closes the extra window. Your browser must be javascript enabled for you to view the large photos.

All original art on this web site is copyright © 1999-2015 by the artist.

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