Verditer flycatcher (Male) : Eumyias thalassinus

Verditer flycatcher (Male)
Eumyias thalassinus

 

Verditer flycatcher (Male): Eumyias thalassinus

IUCN Status: LC – Least Concern.

Place: Forests beyond Pangot. (Being converted into a sanctuary – a conserved ecosystem for birds and animals)

Date: 5^th April, 2015.

I learnt a few important lessons on this trip. Both from birding point of view and as regards photography. Though I’m a DIY kind of guy, I do sometimes attend training courses. But the class I attend most is learning by doing. It may not be the most efficient of systems, I concede that, my experience also reiterates the point to me, but changing to more productive and efficient learning systems and their application seems so difficult. The informal ‘DIY learning’ from books, manuals an online material followed by ‘learning by doing’ is a deep, well-grooved rut. These systems are not all bad; in fact, I recommend everyone should find the DIY nerve centre within themselves as early as possible to keep life interesting; however, formal learning organizes main points for one to work out from – there may be fewer opportunities lost to re-doing the same.

Readers may wonder what this is all about on a birding blog. Specially on a page about Verditer flycatcher. Well it’s like this - though frequently spotted in Himalayas and North-east, this bird has been on my wishlist for a while. There was no record of spotting it by me in my database. Then suddenly I had the opportunity to spot this distinctive bird on two different days.

The first opportunity was in a rainy dark forest whilst the next was in a sunny dark forest. The common factor being – dark forest. There are ways to photograph birds in both situations. One must know them, learn them, become familiar, practice them till they become an instinct, train your muscle systems for quick, steady and precise action; especially when using mini-bazookas like mine or proper big booming bazooka lenses which can be heavy and tiresome on neck, thumbs, wrists, elbows and shoulders. And my right elbow and shoulder are shot! I’m not even talking about the back and lower-limb muscles involved in providing a stable base to shoot from when using heavy lenses. And you have to be quick, agile, assess the light status, adjust the shutter speeds accordingly, badger the bazooka to focus quickly in low-light, and all the while the subject bird is fidgeting all suspicious and looking to fly away. You have to heft the weight with each fidgeting to and fro to get a shot. Rarely do small birds pose long enough. If you do not follow the movements of these small and mid-size fidgety birds, you’ll get a distorted photo when camera has been adjusted to low light. The focal length also keep changing with the subject’s movement and bazookas are slow to autofocus. Especially at the low-end of the segment.

In all this, you have to remember to focus on the eye of the bird.

Focus on the eye of the bird to get the best bird shots.

It is here that my lack of practiced routine kicked in. Anyway, I hadn’t touched camera, lens or binoculars for six months from a birding perspective and things are forgotten. Especially small tips learnt from reading, and so on and so forth.

There aren’t many things to think about in good light but in these conditions of rain and dark forests, there was much overloading the mind in a short, rapidly evolving period of time. Composition went for a toss, in my case.

Shooting from dark against light is a big no-no. You have to have the bird in maximum light and against leaves or such non-luminous background. Sky, white or shiny grey clouds and such will not do. This is another thing to think about in the few seconds you have with you before the bird flits to another branch.

Coming back to focussing on the eye – different cameras have different number of focus points, usually arranged in a rectangular area. The most common point selected is the centre point for most photographs. In birds using the centre point will focus on the body if the bird has to remain within frame. When close to birds or when using bazooka zoom, especially, to focus on the eye, one has to shift the focus point from centre to right- or left-top so that the eye is in focus and the entire bird is well captured in frame without its tail or head being lopped off or too close to margins. This is the error I made on both occasions. I failed to shift from centre focus to a lateral point focus. Notice how close the tail is to the margin of photo, therefore. The composition is imperfect.

Training courses drill these tips in and make you practice in different situations till it becomes an instinct. I forgot this ‘little’ adjustment in the low-light-fidgety-bird confusion. Imagine the cost of doing it all again! Imagine if the opportunity will present again or not. DIY and ‘learning by doing’ systems necessarily impose repetition. Repetition is costly – not just in terms of money, but also time and opportunity - in birding and bird photography.

I might have bored readers with this rambling about bird photography when they might have been looking for matter on the Verditer. But now, I shan’t ever forget this last fine adjustment. Maybe DIY bird photographers like me amongst readers will also know and remember this tip – Focus on the eye of the bird, O great bird photographer, but also remember to capture the bird entirely within a well-composed frame. Tweak that little focus point “X” to top-right or top-left or wherever as the case may be to catch the eye. Zooming-in is fraught – may clip the tail or slice the head or imbalance clear space around the bird.

Bird Facts

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Muscicapidae

Genus: Eumyias

Species: thalassinus

 

Residency status: Summer visitor to Himalayas and North-east India. In winters it is more widespread. Breeds in Himalayas and NE region.

Size: About 15 cms. Slim, long-tailed, upright stance.

Males: Greenish blue – kind of turquoise, CuSO4 type colour; brighter foreheads and throat; black lores.

Female: Duller, greyer, dusky lores.

Habitat: Forest areas, forest clearings and gardens.

Food: It’s all in its name! Also berries.

 

Photographed at Forests beyond Pangot, Uttarakhand, India on 5.4.2015.

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with Tamron 150-600mm lens.