Capturing Behaviour: Nest-Building

Capturing Behaviour: Nest-Building

Wildlife Photographic Magazine

The fifth instalment of “Capturing Behaviour” explores the nest-building behaviour of weaver birds.

My article series, “Capturing Behaviour” for Wildlife Photographic Magazine explores the importance of being able to identify and anticipate a variety of common animal behaviour to achieve better and more captivating results with readers’ wildlife photography.

This article series helps readers to understand why wildlife behaviour is important to wildlife photography. My writing is illustrated with my wildlife photographs.

Understanding nest-building behaviour of birds will help you as a bird photographer to capture some of the most remarkable achievements in the natural world. Photographing birds building nests needs to be undertaken with care and responsibility. Becoming a competent bird photographer with a sound knowledge of bird breeding behaviour should be our objective here. The risk of nest failure is high and disturbance must be kept to a minimum.

A standard way to shoot nesting behaviour is from a hide but here again the bird photographer must exercise judicial prudence as some species are protected by law and can only photographed at the nest with a licence. It takes time and knowhow to erect a hide that will be accepted by birds. Photographers working abroad should exercise the same care as they would at home. Disturbance should be kept to a minimum and never be caused during bad weather. The quieter the shutter, the greater the chance of birds accepting it. The longer the focal length of the lens, the better: distance increases the likelihood of the birds accepting you.