What not to do when you photograph nesting birds | Eye News,The Indian Express
Don't behave like the paparazzi when it comes to birds and their babies
All over the world when a celebrity couple – or royalty – is expecting a happy event, the paparazzi begin to hound them: from sneaking pictures of suspected baby-bumps to trying willy-nilly to get the first images of the squalling little brat. The couple has to protect their infant, and, later, toddler fiercely as wolves, adding considerably to their stress levels, trauma, blood pressure and chances of divorce.
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Most bird photographers going after nesting birds do much the same thing. Some inadvertently so, others deliberately, occasionally going way beyond the norms of civilised behaviour. More than four decades ago, when I had just gotten interested in birds, a pair of black kites had built a nest on the peepal tree around 200m away from our apartment, but clearly visible from the verandah. The moment I pointed my camera at them (especially since the eldest chick was attempting to murder its sibling), the mom would slip off the nest, go round the corner of the building, gain height and then swoop down at me in a screaming dive, talons extended. I got the message very quickly and immediately warned others to stay away from the spot. Here in Delhi, a purple sunbird built its jhuggi-jhompri just outside our front door, dangling from a hanging plant, so that was the first thing you saw when you opened the door. I sneaked one photograph from inside the house, and decided not to take any more. The nest alas, just disappeared one morning, brought down either by cats or monkeys.
By and large, I think nest photography should be avoided as far as possible or only permitted under license. Do remember, a nesting bird is at its most stressed, vulnerable and overworked, trying to feed and bring up its brood. The last thing it needs is an interfering photographer sticking a huge glass lens in its babies’ faces, and clearing away leaves and twigs and undergrowth, which hid the nest from predators. And often one interfering moron makes way for more. Some completely amoral, will take their oh-so-exclusive photographs and then go and destroy the nest, eggs and fledglings so that others can’t get the same photographs, and claim the glory.
Thanks to the availability of disposable incomes and prime lenses, bird (and nature) photography has shot up in popularity in the last couple of decades. With it has come a cutthroat game of one-upmanship, which has boded ill for the subjects. Ah, you may argue, if we do not photograph or video birds, how do we find out how they live their lives? The more we know about them, the better we can protect them. And all those documentaries on BBC Wildlife and other channels, use tiny hidden cameras inside the nests of birds and the birds seem fine with them. Well, I sometimes wonder about that too, though generally abroad they do seem to be more careful and professional because if word got around (which is so easy with social media) that the birds deserted or were upset – that’s not going to go down at all well with the viewing public.
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