Going to the zoo in March, interesting story about bird photography

The magnificent plumage of the Jay (also known as the Earth Phoenix) - Photo: HUY THO

On holidays or weekends, the zoo is packed with people coming to enjoy the fresh air in the middle of a bustling city.

Only when you visit the zoo often do you see that the visitors are very diverse, from young families bringing their children to play and learn about nature; then young people coming to take beautiful photos of themselves. And especially the wildlife photography team.

March Story Zoo

Many people at first hear it and say: Oh, wildlife photographers go to the zoo? Take pictures of birds and animals in cages?

No, there are many species of birds living outside the cages, which are extremely attractive to photographers.

Since Tet, people taking pictures of wild birds have spent a lot of money to go to the zoo, which people still jokingly call "going to take pictures at the 66k site" (including the ticket price of 60,000 VND and the parking fee of 6,000 VND).

March is the breeding season for birds, and parrots in the zoo are also in the mating season - Photo: HUY THO

First are the pairs of Parrots that pair up during the breeding season. Next are the Jays (also known as the Ground Phoenix, scientific name: Urocissa erythroryncha , a species of bird in the crow family).

This species has been present in zoos for many years. It is very attractive because it is extremely beautiful, with long, graceful tail feathers.

And the appeal of wildlife photography is that it never runs out of inspiration. First of all, I want to have a beautiful portrait of it.

It sounds easy to say, but in reality it's not easy at all, because you can't just take a photo of it standing still to identify it as a Phoenix and that's it.

For photographers, bird portraits must have soul and be able to "count feathers" (meaning each feather must be detailed).

The Jay couple in the zoo, living freely outside the cage - Photo: HUY THO

After the "feather counting" stage, it's time to take action shots (flying). Flying must be accompanied by a background image, sometimes it hovers over the bougainvillea trellis, sometimes it's on top of the mai chieu thuy tree...

For more than ten days now, the photography world has been buzzing with more than a dozen photographers sitting in the zoo every day to take pictures of the Garrulax leucolophus fighting with the Garrulax leucolophus.

A Portuguese couple - Photo: HUY THO

The woodpecker is an extremely noisy bird, just as our grandparents used to compare a group of noisy children to "a group of woodpeckers". These birds often travel in flocks. Wherever they go, they make a lot of noise.

They are both fierce and stupid! When they see the rearview mirrors of the electric cars carrying tourists in the zoo, they often rush to look at themselves in the mirror and peck and kick at the glass because they think some stupid Portuguese is imitating them!

Glass stone pot - Photo: HUY THO

The pigeon landed on a dry branch, unexpectedly landing on a gecko. The gecko got angry and bit the pigeon's leg, causing it to fly away in panic - Photo: HUY THO

Normally, the Jays also avoid the flock of Magpies. But the thing is, the pair of Jays in the zoo have just mated, laid eggs and are incubating.

During this period, it is very aggressive, even attacking the Bo Chao when they invade its feeding grounds.

Famous photographers in the wild bird photography community such as Thanh TB and Dinh Truong were the first to capture the fight between the Jay and the Po Chao, and so the whole photography community flocked to the zoo to watch.

Like everyone else, I saw an interesting story about birds and jumped in. Although the pictures were still far behind those of the seniors, they were enough to tell an entertaining story, tentatively named "March's zoo of stories".