I’ve taken pictures of well over 200 birds around the world, so it’s been very tricky narrowing down the list to just ten.
In the end, I had to cheat by broadening the definition of ‘bird’ from species to something like ‘genus’ or ‘family’. All in all, the only criterion I’ve used to come up with the list is the excitement I felt in seeing each bird, but that in turn is obviously some combination of its beauty, rarity and power. I hope that makes sense…!
10: Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
Every now and again, you see a bird that’s just so beautiful and surprising that it almost takes your breath away.
The red-cheeked cordon-bleu was one of those. I was having lunch out in the bush on a game drive one day when, suddenly, there it was, together all kinds of colourful birds that were then unknown to me, including the red-and-yellow barbet.
It was only a tiny little thing, and it was hopping around all over the place underneath the table in search of crumbs, so I didn’t get a very good shot of it, but it certainly makes the list.
9: Macaw (hyacinth macaw)
I went to the Brazilian Pantanal a few years ago, and I knew there might be hyacinth macaws over there. Unfortunately, we had to wait a long while to see them, and when we did, I only had my very long (and very heavy!) 800mm lens with me.
They are iconic birds with eye-catching royal blue plumage and contrasting yellow skin around their eyes and beaks, but I couldn’t handhold my camera for longer than five seconds, so I didn’t manage to do them justice. However, it was exciting enough just to see them.
8: Starling (greater blue-eared starling, Hildebrandt’s starling, Rüppell's starling, superb starling)
In Britain, we have starlings. In Africa, they have superb starlings. Need I say more…?! The superb starling is just one of a superb collection of starlings that are as common as they are uncommon, with beautifully iridescent plumage and striking colours.
It’s always a pleasure to see them, and they go some way to restore the reputation of what to us is just a ‘Little Brown Job’, or LBJ.
7: Toucan (green toucan, toco toucan)
The toucan is one of the most iconic birds that I’ve ever seen. It just screams, ‘South America!’
The colour scheme of the plumage instantly reminds you of the Guinness ads and countless images in the advertising world, and it’s almost an unreal experience when you see an actual example in the wild.
I took this shot in the Brazilian Pantanal just outside our lodge, where they lay out papayas and other fruit every morning for the local birds. It gave us a great chance to get pictures of the curaçao, the chestnut-eared araçari and, of course, the toco toucan.
6: Kingfisher (malachite kingfisher)
The malachite kingfisher has beautiful blue wings and a long, red beak, but it gets its name from the green feathers on the top of its head.
It’s so small that it’s very difficult to get a good shot of it in the wild, but I was lucky enough to get this shot on a boat trip on the Chobe River in Botswana.
When I alerted the driver, he steered in that direction and then cut the engine when we were about 50 yards away and just let the boat drift towards it.
I took dozens of shots with my 80-400mm lens until the bird finally flew away. When I lowered my camera, I realised that we were only three feet away!
There are plenty of other kingfishers, of course, and it’s common to see fast shutter-speed shots of common kingfishers grabbing fish from a river, but the malachite kingfisher is the one that I get most excited about.
5: Owl (spotted owlet, Verreaux’s eagle-owl)
I have a thing for predators. When it comes to birds, that normally means eagles, hawks and harriers, but I have occasionally come across the odd owl.
I’ve seen the Verreaux’s eagle-owl a few times in Africa, but the most delightful sighting I had was of this cute baby spotted owlet in India. I’d just been on a tiger safari in Ranthambore, and it was getting late when I suddenly saw the bird perched in a hole in a tree, fast asleep.
There were three vehicles, and we all stopped to take pictures for five or 10 minutes before finally driving off…and the bird never batted an eyelid!
4: Bee-eater (European bee-eater, little bee-eater)
“A bird in flight is worth two in the bush.” Isn’t that what they say?
The truth is that we all prefer to see animals in action rather than simply ‘portraits’ of them, however beautiful they are, and that goes double for birds.
It’s far too easy to take shots of a ‘Bird on a Stick’ (or BoS), and it takes some skill and craft to get shots of birds in flight.
Apart from their beautiful plumage, one of the joys of the little and European bee-eater that you find in Africa is that they tend to have a ‘favourite’ branch that they return to after every little trip to try and catch an insect.
That means you can focus on the branch and, if you time it right, catch the moment when the bee-eater spreads its wings to slow down before landing.
You obviously need a little patience for this, and I’ve sometimes had to ask the driver to warn me when the bird was about to land so that I could get the timing just right, but it’s well worth it when it works.
Getting a good portrait of a bee-eater is very difficult because they’re so small and skittish, so I was very lucky to capture this one.
I was on a game drive at Klein’s Camp, and we were driving down a long hill into the valley when I suddenly saw a European bee-eater on a branch not 10 yards in front of us. I immediately tapped the driver on the shoulder, pointed at it and whispered in his ear to stop.
Miraculously, the bird didn’t fly off, and when I took this picture it can only have been about five yards away!
3: Penguin (Adélie, chinstrap, gentoo, Humboldt, king, macaroni, Magellanic, rockhopper)
The best place to see penguins is in the Southern Ocean, either in the Falklands, South Georgia or on the Antarctic Peninsula, but it’s very expensive and time-consuming to get there.
The only reason I could afford it in 2016 was that a property deal fell through, and I was left with thousands of pounds I didn’t know what to do with!
The answer was to fritter it all away on trips to the Galápagos and Botswana and a three-week cruise around the Antarctic. My reward was getting hundreds of shots of penguins - so many, in fact, that I was beginning to get a bit bored of them!
However, I had a couple of great encounters.
The first was when I was at Brown Bluff on the Antarctic Peninsula. I was walking along the beach when I noticed a few Adélie penguins jumping into the water from an ice floe. I sat down at the water’s edge and started taking pictures.
After a few minutes, another ice floe floated near to the first one, and one of the penguins decided to jump from one to the other. I’ve sold my shot of that moment over 2,000 times!
It’s always fun (if slightly disconcerting) when photo goes viral, and that took me completely by surprise. However, I didn’t actually give it five stars when I first rated it, and I actually prefer the one below.
This came during my second great encounter, which took place in St Andrew’s Bay on South Georgia.
One of the great things about coming across penguins on the beach is that they’re very curious, and they’ll occasionally waddle right up to you to see what you’re all about.
Yes, we weren’t supposed to stay seven metres away from them, but it was fine if we let them come to us.
On this particular occasion, I watched as a pair of king penguins - I assume a male and female - walked up to the only rock on the sandy beach and started to examine it.
They were fascinated by it and ended up staying there for about 10 minutes! I don’t know the explanation for sure, but it looked just like they were arguing over what must’ve looked to them like an egg.
I could just imagine the possible conversation:
“Is that our egg?”
“No, it’s just a rock, darling.”
“It’s an egg, you idiot, not a rock!”
“That’s not fair! It’s obviously a rock!”
“I think it’s our egg. Did you lose our egg?!”
…And so on, and so on. In the end. The male must’ve got his way because they eventually walked off…without the rock!
2: Roller (European roller, Indian roller, lilac-breasted roller)
I’ve seen rollers in India and Africa, but they’re all wonderfully pretty and colourful. The lilac-breasted roller (or LBR) is particularly common in Botswana, and the combination of perfect blue skies and a plethora of dead tree stumps by the side of the road made it a great place to spot them.
However, I took my favourite shot in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania in January 2018. I remember it well.
I was on a game drive when I suddenly spotted a lilac-breasted roller sitting on a branch. I carefully set up for the shot, resting my 800mm lens on the armrest of my seat and then carefully taking a deep breath, letting half of it out and then squeezing the shutter.
Just as I took the picture, the roller fluttered its wings.
I thought it had flown off and that I’d missed the picture, but it was actually a huge stroke of luck. By opening its wings at the crucial moment, I’d been able to capture the colours on the underside of the bird’s wings. That’s usually very difficult unless the bird is in flight.
I thought I might have something special, so I checked the shot on the back of my camera. That’s when I noticed another piece of luck: the roller had been holding a grasshopper in its mouth. Bingo!
I immediately showed it to my friend Karen in the jeep, and she was suitably impressed. It’s subsequently won several awards and appeared as the Opening Shot image in Outdoor Photography magazine.
1: Eagle (African crowned eagle, African fish eagle, bateleur, brown-chested snake-eagle, brown snake-eagle, harpy eagle)
And the winner is…the eagle!
Not for its beauty - I think there are plenty of birds that are more colourful and beautiful than the various species of eagle, most of which are just some combination of brown, white and black. However, as I often confess, I love predators, and I just get more excited about seeing birds of prey than I do any other kind.
I remember almost every sighting of an eagle in Africa, particularly the African fish eagle and the glorious martial eagle.
I’ve also been frequently disappointed when the big, eagle-like bird perched in a distant tree has turned out to be ‘just’ a vulture! That’s some measure of the excitement I feel on seeing an eagle.
However, the best picture I’ve ever taken of one is probably this close-up of a golden eagle.
I was actually attending a re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings at Battle Abbey in East Sussex, and I found out that there was going to be a falconry display. I went along to that and saw various birds of prey, including the golden eagle, the Harris hawk and the gyrfalcon.
When the falconer had finished his routine, he went back to his tent and tethered the birds while he fed and watered them. That gave me the perfect opportunity to get some great close-ups, and this is my favourite.
I took it about three feet away from the eagle with the 50-500mm lens that I had at the time. When my friend James printed it for me and I hung it on my wall, I ended up staring at it for about 20 minutes while we chatted together!
I love the catchlight in the eye, the sharpness of the detail and the bokeh background. A worthy winner…
