Using Your Vehicle as a Photo Blind

Many of you have probably already figured this out, but it bears repeating that you are sometimes better off staying inside your vehicle rather than getting out of it if you want to get close-up views of some birds. This particularly is true when photographing birds. For whatever reason, automobiles do not seem to alarm birds, whereas a human outside of a vehicle poses a threat.

Getting good pictures of a Golden-crowned Kinglets is tough when you are chasing them around the woods on foot, mainly because they are rarely at eye level. This Golden-crowned, attracted to my roadside pishing, came in low through the brush and then emerged in plain view about 15 feet away. It was photographed at the edge of a woodlot near Brownsville, Linn County, Oregon on 20 February 2009.

When I'm birding open country habitats I make a habit of slowly driving up to particularly juicy-looking hedgerows. Instead of getting out of my car, I just roll down the window and "pish" (see definition below). More often than not, the sparrows, chickadees, kinglets, and wrens that were previously unseen immediately pop into view on the outer branches of the vegetation and remain there as long as I keep pishing.

We know that raptors are typically quite wary of humans, surely the result of being shot at for generations. I have rarely been able to walk to within 50 meters of a perched hawk without flushing it. However, hawks on fenceposts, telephone poles, and perched on wires will often allow a slow-moving vehicle to drive right up to them. It is important to remember that quick or jerky movements will still alarm and likely flush these birds, so it is important to be very deliberate in your motions. If you plan to attempt pictures, I recommend rolling your window down before you get right next to the bird. With most newer vehicles, the movement of the window is accompanied by the motor noise of the mechanism that moves it. Even this slight extra motion and noise might flush birds that would otherwise stay put. In my experience, there seems to be an advantage to keeping all body parts and your camera inside the car. Once that big lens pops out the window, your subject is likely to bolt.

This rather bedraggled looking immature Cooper’s Hawk, photographed near Halsey, Linn County, Oregon 21 December 2008, posed for more than 20 minutes while Jennifer Brown and I sat in my car a mere 30 feet away. It was still sitting there drying off when we reluctantly moved on. 

American Kestrels are among the flightiest of all North American raptors, rarely staying put once you get close to them. On 20 February 2009 I made several unsuccessful attempts to capture images of perched kestrels, before finally getting a few shots of this male near Lebanon, Linn County, Oregon.

Hopefully, these tips will help you get close to some species that you normally don’t get to see up close and personal, and don’t forget to take along a camera.  

What is “pishing?”  Pishing is the act of using your voice to attract small birds. If you say “pish” with a heavy and protracted emphasis on the “SSSHHH” sound at the end, it is sonically quite similar to the scolding notes of chickadees and other small birds.  When passerines hear this sound they will often come in to check out what the commotion is about.

All photos taken by David Irons using a Canon EOS XSI 450 D camera and an EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens.