I admire the research skills of some of the bloggers I follow. Lisa, who writes Notes from Africa for example, would probably dig deep into the identity of this pretty, orange-ish bird until she found its name. I thought I’d take a stab at species identification, but I quickly became annoyed because a lot of the birds look the same to me. So, relenting to the knowledge I’m no scientific researcher, I gave up and decided just to post the picture.
I’m just happy he flew into my field of vision and chose this great background. Immediately, I had to run and find David, who continues to be somewhat challenged when it comes to photographing live birds.
Jolene's Life in Focus 
Fantastic shot! Nice and sharp and I love the background as well as the angle and texture of the rope he’s landed on. Perfect!
Man, I just don’t get it. Was I mean to birds early in life and don’t remember? Do they know I LOVE to eat chicken (is a chicken a bird?)? Do they know I once got yogurt on a pet bird and it didn’t come off very easy? Sigh…I will continue to try to get my bird shots…
Hi Jolene, great shot and great attitude. I have to admit, I am one of those people who would look it up! But, oh the time it takes 😦
Love your posts, I haven’t looked in a while, great new images. -Kim
Thank you, Kim! I’d taken a WordPress break for a while myself. I need to go catch up on your posts as well. 🙂
LOL… thanks for the laugh Jolene. Sorry David… 😉
Emily – David was shooting some bottle rockets (or something similar) last night, and I had visions of birds falling from the sky. LOL. Luckily, that didn’t happen…
Hi Jolene and thanks for commenting on my blog which brought me here. I must admit that I normally don’t follow blogs of photographers “who shoot everything” but I must say that I like your blog and want to come here frequently. Your short posts with accompanying photos covering really wide variety of subjects and the way you picture them suits me somehow. Regarding the bird – it’s definitely some kind of Waxwing as Angelina wrote. We have them in our country also even though they are very rare to be spotted. Their name in our language (Czech) is composed from two words: quill and celebrate and means something like “the one who celebrate (with) quills” 🙂 The photo is very well composed and I really like the uncommon perch (rope). I only wish you used more shallow DOF to have the background nicely blurred. It’s very nice as is though.
Thank you for all of your wonderful comments, Tomas. Because I just got into photography a year and a half ago or so, I tend to take pictures of everything trying to find my niche. There are so many random and beautiful things in this world, it’s hard to focus on one type of photography…well, for now anyway. 🙂
Nice shot Jolene!
Thanks, Jim!
FYI: It’s a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum). Nice shot! 🙂
Thanks, Angelia! I’m glad someone knew was this was!
The bird is a Cedar Waxwing (I’m one that like to find the name of the bird). A good site is http://www.allaboutbirds.org. I generally can find what I’m looking for on there.
Very nice shot. I think David has given up on birds.
Now, how did I know you would know this, Sarah?
Great capture, this bird looks like he was waiting for his picture to be taken. This one is pretty. It’s a great composition.
He does seem like he was just waiting, Martina. After I took the shot he flew away.
Ah yes – I recognize it – the elusive Orange Rope-Sitting Bird! Glad to see that your association with David has not turned the birds against you…. yet.
Hahah. I think I like your species identification the best, Mike!
Lovely… very clean, very sharp… perfectly balanced.
Thanks, Nigel!
Poor David . . .
Great shot! Jolene, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know that matters. A lot of birds look similar to me too, so I cheat. I have an ecologist friend who is very knowledgeable about birds. If I need an ID I email him a photo.
I agree – it is who you know! It turns out I have a couple of friends who could tell me in about 5 seconds what this bird was!