Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

I was trying to photograph an Inchworm moth caterpillar sitting on a blade of grass. Breeze was blowing the grass blade so much that I was unable to focus correctly. I wanted the breeze to subside so that I could get the caterpillar in good focus. As I got up to explore other photographic opportunity nearby in that area, corner of my eye caught a curious small bird hopping behind my back. What I saw was the Plain Prinia (Prinia inornata). The bird was watching me focusing on the caterpillar. As soon as I got away it jumped on the blade of grass and plucked that caterpillar, flew to a nearest termite ridden bamboo post. Sitting on that post bird started to eat the caterpillar.

I was shocked with the sudden turn of events. My subject was being eaten in front of my very own eyes. But that turn of events by itself was a good photo opportunity. I was on that day using my usual rig for closeup photography consisting of Canon EOS 1D Mark IV fitted with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM with Canon EF 1.4x III Extender. This rig had another advantage that it was perfectly suitable for photographing birds too. So my dual purpose setup came very handy as I had only seconds to focus on the bird and take picture before the caterpillar vanished into the beak of the bird. As you can see I didn’t even had time to change my aperture which was at f/10 as everything happened so sudden.

Inchworm Moth Caterpillar

As I clicked away a feeling of guilt came over me as I was feeling that it was me, who is responsible for the death of caterpillar. If I had not stalked that caterpillar, bird would not have found it. Inadvertently I have been responsible for the death of the caterpillar. Many a times consequences of our action will result in harm even if we do not intend to. That lead me to other thoughts of how photographer due to their actions affect their subjects and surroundings.

I want to go through few of the ethical dilemma faced by nature photographers. When we photograph we might influence our surrounding. It should be in such a way that it does not harm the nature. What commonly comes to mind is the nest photography indulged by several bird photographers. I have seen crows watching these photographers, which later attack those very nests which were being photographed. Several photographers denude the nest so that chicks are visible without any obstruction for their photography. This blows away the natural camouflage created by the chick’s parents and exposes them to predators. Handling young chicks will surely jeopardize their life. Using harsh flash very close to young ones will surely cause harm to their eyes.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

I have seen many insect photographers who catch their subjects and put them in refrigerators so that their activity slows down and insects become immobile. These are all unethical practices which needs to be condemned. Baiting animals which habituates these animals to artificial human food is another unethical practice. Using sound as bait (done mainly in bird photography) is likely to cause unnecessary stress if done for very long.

Photographing in a zoo takes the ‘wild’ out of ‘wildlife photography’. If you shoot captive animals label your photograph that they are taken in captivity. There is vast difference in the photograph where photographer spent weeks sleeping rough in a mosquito-infested forest to get the shot, or merely an afternoon stroll at the local safari park.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

Modern digital photography allows easy manipulation of photograph. Last week someone asked me this question that is relevant to all the modern day photographers. He asked me “when we have such great tools like Adobe Photoshop to manipulate photos as we want, why spend lot of effort get photograph right in the camera?” Photographers have been manipulating their images right the earliest days of their art. The first recorded case of photo manipulation was in the early 1860s, when a photo of Abraham Lincoln was altered using the body from a portrait of John C. Calhoun and the head of Lincoln from a famous seated portrait by Mathew Brady – the same portrait which was the basis for the original Lincoln Five-dollar bill.

People have attempted to pass off heavily manipulated images as genuine. At the very least these photographers could admit that their pictures have been faked by disclosing in the captions that they are digital art and not authentic photographs. But they don’t. The camera itself may never lie but, sadly, some photographers do. Creative computer skills can produce quite beautiful results. And one might also argue that photography is an art, after all, so its aim should be to make pictures as appealing and eye-catching as possible. I do not manipulate any of my photos. My post processing only involves regular raw conversion with brightness, contrast enhancement, sharpness and cropping along with noise removal as these are all necessary steps for any raw file which needs to be processed properly. I try my best to get maximum result out of the camera during shooting itself than achieving it in post production.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

These deceitful photographers steal the trust that should be inherent in wildlife images. Once fake photographs have shaken your confidence, you begin to doubt everything you see. Digitally manipulated images raise the bar in wildlife photography to an unnaturally high level. Sooner or later the photographers will get caught manipulating their images. Lincoln’s photograph I mentioned earlier was discovered as fake due to Lincoln’s famous mole. The trickery which was attributed to Thomas Hicks, the President’s famous mole would appear on the wrong side of his face. It was only years later that Stefan Lorant, the art director for the London Picture Post magazine, noticed that the photo was a fake.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

I think as nature photographers we should adhere to a certain Code of Ethics. Here is what I practice.

• View wildlife from a safe distance for both you and them. Respect and maintain their space. If the animal interrupts its behavior (resting, feeding, etc.), then you are too close and must distance yourself.
• Never force an action. Be patient! The most beautiful photographs result from natural action.
• Never come between a parent and its offspring.
• Never crowd, pursue, prevent escape, make deliberate noises to distract, startle or harass wildlife.
• Never feed or leave food (baiting) for wildlife. Habituation due to handouts can result in disease or even death of that animal and injury to you.
• Never encroach on nests or dens as certain species will abandon their young.
• Never interfere with animals engaged in breeding, nesting, or caring for young.
• Learn to recognize wildlife alarm signals and never forget that these animals are wild no matter how docile or cuddly they appear.
• Do not damage or remove any plant, life form or natural object. Do not litter and pack your trash for safe disposal elsewhere.
• Acquaint yourself with and respect the behaviors and ecosystems of the wildlife you may encounter.
• Remember that the welfare of the subject and habitat are irrefutably more important than the photograph.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

Here is an Ethics Declaration for wildlife photographers which has been formulated by WildPhotos in 2010. Read it and sign up at the WildPhotos Ethics Declaration website as I have done.

Female Loten's Sunbird

Long time back I had posted two articles on Male Loten’s Sunbird (Cinnyris lotenius) here and here. Recently on a cloudy overcast afternoon I found the female Loten’s Sunbird who frequents Oleander bush in our garden was sitting on the overhead television cable. As I picked up my Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM fitted on Canon EOS 1D Mark IV to photograph her. I realized that I was too close to her.

Light from the overcast sky was nicely highlighting her extra curved beak. When I took meter reading off her I found the sky will totally blow out as the sky was 4 stops brighter than the bird. Since I was concerned about the correct exposure for the bird I took 3 consecutive shots with 3 different composition. Within seconds of posing she flew away.

Female Loten's Sunbird

When I looked at the photos it was starkly minimalistic with brilliant white sky. Sometimes it works to your advantage to have such a sky. I have seen many wedding photographers using white sky to highlight their subjects. Here since the background was bared of everything bird was highlighted as though it was taken out of my bird guide book.

So to enhance this contrast I converted one of the 3 pictures I took to Black & white. Even though the bird was stationary the mood of each picture is different as I had composed each differently. Post processing I noticed the sky was blown out far more than I had expected and I had to use recovery slider in Adobe Lightroom to get my whites back from blown-out stage.

Female Loten's Sunbird

Scaly-breasted Munia

This year’s monsoon was in full swing. That Sunday, when the rain had stopped briefly I saw a large group of Munias gregariously venturing out savoring the newly sprouted grass seeds. The group consisted of both Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata) & White-rumped Munia (Lonchura striata) in them. Even though they were two different species there was no difference in their pecking order nor there was any compitetive fight among them. There were over 40 birds in that group. I used my Canon EOS 1D Mark IV with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM fitted with Canon EF 1.4x III Extender to capture them. As they were jumping around from bush to bush searching for the tender grass seeds, it was difficult to focus on individual birds. The energy level of these birds are tremendous and they were never stationary.

I could approach them quite close and they were not shy of me. But even at such a close quarters all the photos I got were having a bad background. They were grazing in the midst of clumps of grass. This created a difficult situation where blades of grass were in front as well behind the bird distracting the picture.I was looking for a bird who is sitting slightly away from the group on a twig which did not have a close enough bush so that I can get a nice creamy bokeh. After chasing them for over an hour I could get a few good enough photographs.

Scaly-breasted Munia

Photographing any subject we need to per-visualize the final result. Most of the time we are so engrossed with the subject we tend to forget the foreground as well as the background. For a good photograph all these aspects of the photograph also need to be in place. Nature photography which does not allow you to control most of these parameters, too needs to be confirming to this rule. This is true even though it is much more difficult to achieve in Nature photography than other types of photography.

The White-rumped Munia or White-rumped Mannikin (Lonchura striata), sometimes called Striated Finch in aviculture, is a small passerine bird from the family of waxbill “finches” (Estrildidae). These are close relatives of the true finches (Fringillidae) and true sparrows (Passeridae).

Immersed in Conversation

It is native to tropical continental Asia and some adjacent islands, and has been naturalized in spome parts of Japan. Its domesticated hybrid descendant, the Society Finch or Bengalese Finch, is found worldwide as a pet and a biological model organism.

The White-rumped Munia is approximately 10 to 11 cm in length, with a stubby grey bill and a long black pointed tail. The adults are brown above and on the breast, and lighter below; the rump is white. There is some variation between the subspecies, but the sexes are almost impossible to distinguish in all subspecies; males have a more bulky head and bill.

Scaly-breasted Munia

The White-rumped Munia is a common resident breeder ranging from South Asia to southern China east to Taiwan, and through Southeast Asia south to Sumatra; it frequents open woodland, grassland and scrub, and is well able to adapt to agricultural land use. It is a gregarious bird which feeds mainly on seeds, moving through the undergrowth in groups. The nest is a large domed grass structure in a tree, bush or grass into which 3-8 white eggs are laid. They are often found near water and have been observed feeding on algae. It has been suggested that they obtain protein from their diet of algae often in the species Spirogyra, which grows in paddy fields.

It is a common and widespread bird across its large range, and is thus not considered a threatened species by the IUCN. In fact, it may locally become a nuisance pest of millets and similar grains.

White-rumped Munia

The Scaly-breasted Munia or Spotted Munia (Lonchura punctulata) known in the pet trade as Nutmeg Mannikin or Spice Finch is a sparrow-sized estrildid finch native to tropical Asia extending from India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia and the Philippines. It has been introduced into many other parts of the world and has established in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola as well as parts of Australia and the United States of America. They are found in open habitats including gardens and agricultural fields where they forage in groups for grass seeds.

The Scaly-breasted Munia is 11–12 cm long. The adult has a stubby dark bill, brown upperparts and darker brown head. The underparts are white with black scale markings. The sexes are similar, although males have darker markings on the underside and a darker throat. Immature birds have pale brown upperparts, lack the darker head and with uniform buff underparts can be confused with immatures of other munias such as the Tricoloured Munia.

White-rumped Munia

Scaly-breasted Munias are found in a range of habitas but are usually close to water and grassland. In India, they are especially common in paddy fields where they are considered a minor pest on account of their grain feeding. They are found mainly on the plains but are found in the foothills of the Himalayas although sometimes found up to an altitude of 2500 m and in the Nilgiris they are found in summer up to 2100 m. In Pakistan they are restricted to a narrow region from Swat in the west to Lahore avoiding the desert zone and occurring again in India east of a line between Ludhiana and Mount Abu.It is rare in Kashmir.

Outside their native range, escaped birds frequently establish themselves in areas with suitable climate. Escaped or introduced populations have been recorded in the West Indies (Puerto Rico since 1971), Hawaii, Australia, Japan and southern United States mainly in Florida and California. In Oahu, Hawaii, they compete for habitats with Lonchura malacca and tend to be rare where the latter is present.

White-rumped Munia

The Scaly-breasted Munia is a small gregarious bird which feeds mainly on seeds but also takes small berries of Lantana and other plants. They sometimes form large flocks of as many as 100 birds. Like some other munias, they sometimes feed on algae. They sometimes flick the tail while hopping about. The tail may be flicked laterally and sometimes vertically and will sometimes flick their wings as well. When roosting, they will set in close contact with each other. Birds in a flock will sometimes preen each other. The soliciting bird usually showing its chin. Allopreening is usually limited to just the face and neck. The breeding season is during the rainy season (mainly June to August in India) but can breed at other times.

The calls include a short whistle, variations on kitty-kitty-kitty and a sharp chipping alarm note. The song of the male is very soft but complex and variable and is audible only at close range. This song described as a jingle consists of a series of high notes followed by a croaky rattle and ending in slurred whistle. When singing the male sits very erect with the head feathers raised. The nest is a large domed structure made of loose grass, bamboo or other leaves with a side entrance and placed in a tree or under the eaves of a house.

White-rumped Munia