Most birders confer with some chook species as their nemesis. That’s what we name a chook we in all probability ought to have seen already, however has in some way eluded us lengthy sufficient to have turn into a particular thorn in our aspect.
In my case, the record of species I’ve but to see is way too lengthy to single out just one. However I can consider a species or two that would match right into a associated class, that of birds that I see pretty typically, however have in some way denied me respectable images, regardless of how typically I see them. All I want is a pleasant identify for this type of chook. “Photographic nemesis”? That appears a bit clunky. “Phemesis”? That sounds sexist. “P.N.”? Nah, lacks model. “Picture-nemesis”? Looks as if the best choice. (And sure, nemeses is the plural of nemesis. Who knew?)
I began eager about this as a result of considered one of my, properly, no matter we’re going to name them, lastly surrendered to my digital camera this week. The Pink-faced Warbler is, by any commonplace, a really good-looking chook.
I noticed my first Pink-faced Warblers in 2013. I’ve now seen them greater than 50 instances. But it surely wasn’t till this previous Monday that I lastly managed images that fulfill me. And, I managed fairly just a few.
The Pink-faced Warbler can be a member of the very small membership of birds that migrate yearly, however principally inside Mexico. Those who breed in northwestern Mexico and the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico spend the winter in central Mexico Those who breed farther south, in central west Mexico, winter in southern Mexico and even in Guatemala. Right here within the southern state of Michoacán, we solely see them in winter.
After we do see these in Michoacán, we frequently see a number of them. However don’t suppose that makes them simple to {photograph}. Till this obliging bloke got here alongside.
I additionally had some luck with a pleasant Painted Redstart, one other species that’s troublesome to {photograph}, however not fairly not possible. In the event you solely had this photograph to information you, you may surprise why this chook known as “Painted“.
That is why.
A distant Hook-billed Kite was positively not prepared for its close-up. However that is one chook that appears nice when backlit.
I’ll prime off this week’s harvest with a pair of images that feminine White-eared Hummingbirds gifted me. These are usually not my first good pictures of this species’ females. However the male White-eared Hummingbird might nonetheless match comfortably within the photo-nemesis class; its purple brow and throat nearly all the time look black, and I’ve but to get a superb shot of that stunning, however elusive, masculine purple flash.
As typically occurs with hummingbirds, that golden sheen on this feminine’s brow is pollen, not feather colour.
My greatest purple flash, from method again in 2018. Nonetheless a photonemesis…
