Birds. Photos. Movies.

November 13, 2009 2:27 PM

Andrew Zuckerman's Bird Book
posted by ooga_booga (31 comments total)

African Pygmy Falcon! New national bird of my heart.
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 2:49 PM on November 13, 2009

Your cat should indeed be wary of ferruginous hawks! Unless it's a large cat, in which case, not so much.

Thanks for this. These are stunning.
posted by rtha at 2:50 PM on November 13, 2009

Excellent Birds.
posted by not_on_display at 3:08 PM on November 13, 2009 [4 favorites]

Do people think these were shot in a studio or outside? Because those birds are razor-sharp and absolutely flooded by light. To my amateur eye at least.
posted by GuyZero at 3:15 PM on November 13, 2009

GuyZero - these were shot in studio conditions at an aviary. If you follow the movie link on the site (damned flash doesn't allow direct linking, alas) you'll see a making-of featurette which is likewise pretty awesome as a how-to-take-photos-of-these-awesome-birds kind of way.
posted by ooga_booga at 3:17 PM on November 13, 2009

Lit me up like a twelve-wired bird of paradise, man!
Also, Verreaux's Eagle Owl sounds like its warming up for a rendition of Bobby McFerrin's greatest hits.
posted by Abiezer at 3:17 PM on November 13, 2009

One of the things which I liked about this site, despite the no-direct-linking thing, is the inclusion of samples of how the birds sound. Hearing the birdcalls as I look at their pictures makes it a far more immersive experience for me. While even the best screen out there doesn't quite compare to a large coffee-table book, the flash design puts this on a different level than other bird photography sites that I've seen.
posted by ooga_booga at 3:24 PM on November 13, 2009

This is great, thanks!
posted by DakotaPaul at 3:56 PM on November 13, 2009

Fabulous. And we thought we'd have to go to other planets to see alien creatures up close! The first Palm Cockatoo photo in particular.
posted by sneebler at 4:01 PM on November 13, 2009

[this is good]
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:02 PM on November 13, 2009

I love this soooooooo much
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 4:27 PM on November 13, 2009

O pointy birds
o pointy pointy
anoint my head,
anointy-nointy.

- John Lillison, England's greatest one-armed poet.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 5:06 PM on November 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

Oh my god, I'd always attributed that poem to Steve Martin. I had no idea that it wasn't he who wrote it. Here's a bit more on John Lillison. Thanks potsmokinghippieoverlord!
posted by ooga_booga at 5:12 PM on November 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

Good thing Audubon isn't alive any more to see this, because he would eat his heart out. Fantastic!
posted by bearwife at 5:13 PM on November 13, 2009

Fabulous, thanks!
posted by fish tick at 6:26 PM on November 13, 2009

Wow.

Now what do I have to do for it to let me scroll on individual photos? They go off the screen half the time and there's no bar or anything. I want to see the whole pictures!
posted by jinjo at 7:03 PM on November 13, 2009

Jinjo, click on the little square full screen icon on the upper left of your screen.
posted by bearwife at 7:39 PM on November 13, 2009

I would be all over this book like an owl on a scrap of mouse(reese's pieces?), but alas, books do not have a zoom feature. I just want to drown myself in the vulturine guineafowl's plumage and never look back.
Also, I'll confess that I was never sufficiently motivated to install flash 10 until this post... may all my further flash viewings be so spectacular.

Thanks ooga_booga.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:26 PM on November 13, 2009

Hmm. Full-screen view only gets me a little bit more of da bird.... palm cockatoo, f'rinstance, only from the neck up. Firefox, Safari, Camino, all seem the same. Somehow I think sumpin's not right.

Anybody see more than the cockatoo's head?

Or maybe I should just not worry. Great pics!
posted by drhydro at 8:42 PM on November 13, 2009

Don't worry. That's how it's supposed to be.
posted by aubilenon at 10:07 PM on November 13, 2009

These are really great, much better images than J Audubon
posted by hortense at 10:41 PM on November 13, 2009

WOW WOW WOW. Last christmas I gave his book "Animals" to several people. Thanks for the link!
posted by tarantula at 6:25 AM on November 14, 2009

Played the clip of the Ferruginous Hawk's call, causing my infant immediate alarm and my dog, also upset, ran in from the other room to stand guard by my child.

Some kind of genetic mammal memory going on here?
posted by MasonDixon at 6:53 AM on November 14, 2009

Played the ferrug call and both cats went all ALERT ALERT and sniffed at the laptop; played the golden eagle call and one cat fled. Now I feel bad.
posted by rtha at 8:09 AM on November 14, 2009

I used to live in a small apartment with a ferruginous hawk. My roommate would hold a chicken head in his gloved hand, and whistle for the hawk. She would jump into the air from her perch in the living room and fly sideways through the kitchen door, land on his hand, and pry his fingers apart with her feet to get the chicken head. He said she could easily crush his hand, even with the welding glove on, if she'd wanted to. (He was a wildlife biologist with permission to keep this hawk, who had been brought to an animal shelter with a broken wing.)

Whenever I walked into the living room, the hawk would hiss and make funny noises at me. Buddy would say, "Well she either wants to mate with you or scare you off." I don't think she liked me well enough for the former.
posted by sneebler at 8:14 AM on November 14, 2009 [4 favorites]

I used to live in a small apartment with a ferruginous hawk.

This is one of the greatest sentences in the English language.
posted by rtha at 8:25 AM on November 14, 2009 [2 favorites]

This is really cool. Is there really no way to get to the pics without the flash interface?
posted by OmieWise at 8:46 AM on November 14, 2009

Yeah, unfortunately this doesn't display well on smaller screens, e.g. on netbooks. Oh well.
posted by intermod at 9:05 AM on November 14, 2009

This is totally awesome. I highly recommend the about movies, very neat. THanks for the post!
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 10:53 AM on November 14, 2009

Wow! what a stunningly beautiful feast of images! Amazing photographs and interesting listening to the sounds as well. Awesome. Thanks.
posted by nickyskye at 11:08 AM on November 14, 2009

(reese's pieces?)

I thought she said "meese's pieces".
posted by dammitjim at 7:51 PM on November 14, 2009