I photographed several Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) in south Texas, which is the only place where you can see birds in the original, non-human-intervention, migratory population.
Whooping Crane, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Austwell, Texas, USA, December 27, 2008
Whooping Crane, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Austwell, Texas, USA, December 27, 2008
Whooping Crane, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Austwell, Texas, USA, December 27, 2008
Whooping Crane, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Austwell, Texas, USA, December 27, 2008
Whooping Crane, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Austwell, Texas, USA, December 27, 2008
Whooping Crane, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Austwell, Texas, USA, December 27, 2008
Great pics, but why get so close?
Thanks for the compliment. I can appreciate your concern about people getting too close and bothering the birds, but I assure you I was not particularly close. I was on a private chartered boat that gives tours of Aransas NWR daily. The close up head photos I was able to get were due to two birds being very close to the edge of the island where the boat was. Combine their physical proximity to the boat with my high megapixel camera with a telephoto zoom lens, and I was able to get some great shots. The birds were not the least bit disturbed by us at all.