Backyard Bird Photography: Building a Birding Perch

I have already written about the benefits of indulging in backyard bird photography in the Backyard Bird photography series introduction post. If you haven’t already gone through it, I recommend you to check it out over here.

Having a bird perch in your garden can give you some really beautiful photographs such as the one shown below.

A Tickell's Blue Flycatcher on my garden perch

There are mainly two ways to photograph birds in and around your backyard/garden. The first is to pay attention to bird calls and songs. Accordingly, you locate them, observe them and try to establish a pattern in their movement and behaviour. There will be certain trees or places around your house which will be frequented by a some birds at particular times of the day. To get this information, the photographer needs to put himself into a constant mode of vigilance. I will explain this concept further in upcoming posts in the Backyard Bird Photography Series. Once you locate the birds around your house, the next big hurdle is to create well-composed photographs with the right colours. This is one of the most difficult parts of backyard bird photography. When photographing birds around the house, it is not enough to just get a sharp picture of the bird, you will also need to be extremely careful about the background and the lighting conditions in your photographs. There are many elements around your house which can spoil your photographs. You may have to move around and adjust your position a lot, just to obtain a good background. And while you do all this, the bird may not be all that obliging to wait for you in the same spot.

This is where a perch comes in. Building a perch in your backyard or garden is essentially a way of luring the bird to a spot in your garden. If the spot for this perch is well chosen, you will suddenly have tremendous control over the background and lighting and other essential factors which affect the quality and beauty of your photographs. Additionally, having a perch will allow you to stay in one place and create a good setup for your camera when photographing the birds.

There are several factors which need to be considered when building your bird photography perch.

Location: The perch should be located in such a way that you can achieve a good bokeh background in all the photographs you take. To ensure this, your perch needs to be located at a distance of more than at least 9feet from its background. If the background is very close to the perch, the resulting images will have a very cluttered and distracting background. You can also experiment with different colours in the background to enhance your photos. For example, I have placed different potted plants in the background of my perch and their various shades makes the background of my photographs a bit more interesting. The other factor which plays an important role in the perch’s location is the hide. You cannot just choose a spot out in the open to set up your camera. This will lead to a considerable reduction in the no of avian visitors to your perch. The ideal thing to do is to position yourself in such a place that the birds will not be able to see you or at least you won't disturb for them. The best way for this is to build a hide through which you can shoot. You might also shoot through a door or window, but the main objective is to stay hidden from the perch visitors. The final thing to consider is to make sure that your camera will be on the same height as the perch as this will give you the best perspective for a good composition. When deciding on the location of the perch, it would be very helpful if you could take a few test shots and make sure that all the above-mentioned points are to your satisfaction.

In my case, I lie flat in the porch of my house while the camera is supported with the help of a ground pod or bean bag. The perch is located in the garden in front of the porch, midway between the porch and the plants along the compound wall which acts as the background. I have covered the railing around the porch with a green cloth which acts as a hide.

My Bird Photography Perch

Designing the Perch: The perch itself needs to be as natural-looking as possible. This is not only good for the composition of the photographs, but it will also be a more comfortable environment for the birds. You could use a variety of branches and twigs to create the perch. You can design the perch in any way desirable, you are only limited by your own imagination. You can further enhance your photographs by decorating the perch with natural props such as flowering branches, leaves, moss, etc. Take a few test photographs from your decided hiding spot and make sure everything is to your satisfaction.

Attracting the birds: Attracting the birds to you perch is not a very easy job. One of the most used ways to attract birds to your perch is to put out a variety of bird feed. There are various ways in which you can do this. The easiest way is to hang up bird feeders which can be filled up with a variety of bird seeds. It would be best to hang the bird feeders in such a way that they do not cut into your photographs when shooting a bird on the perch. You could either hang the feeder a few inches above the perch or a few inches below it. The objective here is for the perch to act as an intermediate platform where the birds will land before they move to the feeder. You can also create some natural-looking feeding places on or near the perch. For example, I have used hemispherical coconut shells discarded from the kitchen as containers to put out some bird feed and tied them to the perch. Additionally, I have created a big hole in the perch branch which can be filled up with bird feed. It has been done in such a way that the hole is not visible in the photographs.

A coconut shell: for water or feed

The type of bird feed that you put out plays an important role in the kind of birds that will visit your perch. Typically sunflowers seed or sunflower seed hearts can be used to attract bigger birds such as parakeets while millets such as bajra (pearl millet) can be used to attract smaller birds. With regards to feed you will have to do a bit of research based on the birds, that visit the areas around your house. You can also use the typically modern bird feeds such as suet cakes and fat balls.

Lastly, you need to make sure that you create a source of water near the perch. The water is necessary for the birds once they feed and it will help ensure more visitors. The water will act as a bigger attraction in the summer and will attract all kinds of avian visitors either for a cool bath or just for a drink. You can either put out an earthen dish or even a larger tray/tank of water based on your convenience. Moving water like a fountain acts as a huge attraction for birds.

A shallow dish of water for the birds to drink and wash

Other considerations: When creating a perch and putting out feeders, there are a few things that need to be considered to ensure the wellbeing of the visiting birds. Make sure that there are no hiding spots nearby for cats or other predators that may harm the birds. Make it a point to clean the bird feeders on a fairly regular basis. Replenish the water in the tray or dish regularly to stop insects from breeding in it and also for the general well being of the birds. Make sure the bird-feed is out of reach from small garden animals such as rodents or you may find your feed to depleting much faster than expected. Once you start putting out bird feed and the birds start coming, it is best not to stop the supply of feed suddenly because it is possible that many birds will start depending on your feed for their daily food and will even travel some distances to get there.

Patience: It will take some time before the birds in your area start visiting the perch. It takes time for them to locate it as well as to become comfortable with the area. Some times it may take a few days or even a few weeks. It's best practice to not disturb the birds for a few days once they start coming to the perch to allow them to get comfortable with the new area. Once they start visiting the perch regularly, you can get into your hide and start creating some beautiful images.

Here are some of the photographs that I have clicked of the birds visiting my perch and its adjacent areas.

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