Wild Birds of Europe

This is from 2017. I was at a local park, shooting White Storks when a woman parked her bicycle and went to a bench nearby to read. It was nice out. Then this Magpie lands on the bike and sees there's food in there. That the croissants were wrapped in plastic didn't bother him one bit. He started poking at it, tearing a hole in it and ate. I was taking shots and then thought it a good idea to warn the woman. The bird had eating half a croissant by then.
He lands on the bicycle and checks out the goodies in the bag.

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Digging in.

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Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19482887
Digging in.

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And enjoying the food.

Hosted photo: posted by Levina de Ruijter in
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Did you tell the woman about the bird eating her food??

Inspeqtor wrote in post #19482895
Did you tell the woman about the bird eating her food??

Yes, after a while. That's how I found out he had eaten through half a croissant.

sidknee wrote in post #19482789
the regular peanut thief......

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2ogo​jXX DSC07312--2023-01-31--14 by Sid Simmons, on Flickr

black billed magpie

Great capture!

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19482887
Digging in.

Hosted photo: posted by Levina de Ruijter in
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forum: Birds

And enjoying the food.

Hosted photo: posted by Levina de Ruijter in
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Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19482884
This is from 2017. I was at a local park, shooting White Storks when a woman parked her bicycle and went to a bench nearby to read. It was nice out. Then this Magpie lands on the bike and sees there's food in there. That the croissants were wrapped in plastic didn't bother him one bit. He started poking at it, tearing a hole in it and ate. I was taking shots and then thought it a good idea to warn the woman. The bird had eating half a croissant by then.
He lands on the bicycle and checks out the goodies in the bag.

Hosted photo: posted by Levina de Ruijter in
./showthread.php?p=194​82884&i=i56517386
forum: Birds

Poking and tearing a hole in the plastic.

Hosted photo: posted by Levina de Ruijter in
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forum: Birds

Great shots of a clever bird at work.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19482887
Digging in.

Hosted photo: posted by Levina de Ruijter in
./showthread.php?p=194​82887&i=i218406569
forum: Birds

And enjoying the food.

Hosted photo: posted by Levina de Ruijter in
./showthread.php?p=194​82887&i=i21058291
forum: Birds

interesting series!

kd_reno wrote in post #19483009
Great shots of a clever bird at work.

Capn Jack wrote in post #19483019
interesting series!

Thanks, Ken and Jack.
Birds are pretty smart, especially members of the corvid family.
I had great fun watching him.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19482557
Pretty cool action sequence, Jan. Well captured.

These last two shots suggest you were very close!

LOL
Knowing what Great Tits are capable of, you sort of look at them with new eyes, don’t you?!

Two very nice shots, Jan. I love the second in particular, it’s really pretty.

Thank you Levina. The birds were relatively close, I guess up between 30-50 meters. Challenge for me was that the park is based on trees ("arboretum heempark" with many trees making it difficult to find the spot to look up. I did manage to find a bit of open spot, was more or less shooting straight up. It was difficult to get the bird in the frame, so it is cropped while the bird was in the corner of the frame. It would have been an even nicer shot if I didn't had to move to find a spot, did not need to shoot straight up. And maybe had more experience with the camera to dial in exposure compensation.
But not complaining, it was nice to get the opportunity to shoot this as I only went out the door to practice around a bit with the camera.

And yes the small ones are looked at a bit different knowing a bit more on their 'true nature' . Nonetheless they remain nice subjects .

Inspeqtor wrote in post #19482560
Great shots!!!

Thank you!

sogs wrote in post #19482601
Very nice!

Great captures!

Wonderful images!

Thank you!

pcs wrote in post #19482737
They were close!

Close indeed!

jan1977 wrote in post #19483028
Thank you Levina. The birds were relatively close, I guess up between 30-50 meters. Challenge for me was that the park is based on trees ("arboretum heempark" with many trees making it difficult to find the spot to look up. I did manage to find a bit of open spot, was more or less shooting straight up. It was difficult to get the bird in the frame, so it is cropped while the bird was in the corner of the frame. It would have been an even nicer shot if I didn't had to move to find a spot, did not need to shoot straight up. And maybe had more experience with the camera to dial in exposure compensation.
But not complaining, it was nice to get the opportunity to shoot this as I only went out the door to practice around a bit with the camera.

And yes the small ones are looked at a bit different knowing a bit more on their 'true nature' . Nonetheless they remain nice subjects .

I had the exact same situation happening a few years ago when I was in a park nearby. Two buzzards being chased away by crows and me shooting straight up, trying to find an opening in the foliage. And my settings all wrong. I posted the story and shots here on POTN and remember Sid replying, saying he had the same thing happen to him! So you’re not alone in this, Jan. But, you came away with the shots, so you did good!

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19482859
Don’t I know it, Sid. I’ve tried shooting some footage and it’s hard. I just can’t seem to hold the darn camera still!

That was my main problem too, locking the tripod head sorts that out until you want to move or zoom a bit either way, it's a nightmare!

Thanks Levina, I've a feeling she will have selected her mate by now, they lay eggs in March so hopefully that's why she's back now.

Thanks again, your shots of the magpie are a great behavioural series, good job catching him at it.

cheers!

Capn Jack wrote in post #19482879
Nicely composed, nice colors

sogs wrote in post #19482961
Great capture!

Thanks both of you, cheers!