There’s something special about bird photography! Lining up species of all sizes and colours in front of our lenses, it's hard no to be in constant awe of their movement and abilities. So, with that in mind, keen bid photographers will be pleased to hear that Nat Geo has just announced a shortlist of the World’s Best Bird Watching Destinations and the locations, spread across the globe, may just surprise you.
The hotlist coincides with National Geographic’s 2018 Year of the Bird campaign, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which bird photographers will know was set-up to protect bird life from hunters.
The man behind the list is author and photographer Noah Strycker, who set a world record after observing 6,042 species of birds in one calendar year on a quest that spanned all seven continents, so let's check out the destinations to visit with your cameras. . . .
South Georgia Island:
Half a million King Penguins, each standing three feet tall, pack shoulder to shoulder in mesmerizing colonies on this hundred-mile-long, glacier-studded island–reached by two days of sailing east of Chile’s Cape Horn. Millions of smaller seabirds nest on the island’s tussock-covered slopes, partly thanks to the largest-ever rat-eradication effort, completed on South Georgia in 2015.
Image by Eric Chen/ Getty Images
Cape May, New Jersey:
The narrow peninsula at Cape May acts as a bird funnel, bringing in songbirds during their spring and fall migrations. At dawn on a good day, legendary Higbee Beach offers front-row seats to a feathered fashion show: A steady procession flies by, each bird intent on finding a place to rest as it encounters the natural barrier of Delaware Bay. With a little luck, you can see 20 species of warblers, each in its own colorful costume.
Image by Jay Cassario/Getty Images
Pantanal, Brazil:
Everyone gets spoiled by nature’s extravagance of Brazil's Pantanal, especially during the July-to-August dry season when three-foot Hyacinth Macaws and hulking Jabiru Storks seem to lurk around every corner. Cruise the famous Transpantaneira road or hop a boat downriver where, amid oodles of birds, you might glimpse a jaguar lounging on an exposed bank.
Image by Alamy
Broome, Western Australia:
Roebuck Bay, on the coast of Australia’s enormous Kimberley wilderness, might be the shorebird capital of the world. More than 100,000 sandpipers, godwits, knots, tattlers, plovers, curlews, greenshanks, and turnstones gather here each year before embarking on a marathon journey northward: Many will not touch down until reaching China five days later. In early April, you can relax on the beach at sunset to watch flock after flock take to the skies.
Image by Luc Hoogenstein
New Guinea Highlands:
The jungly interior of New Guinea, largely unmapped until the 1930s, astonished early explorers with its birdlife—and the area remains a birdwatcher’s wonderland. Dazzling birds-of-paradise appear to have sprung from a modern artist’s wild imagination. A courting male Raggiana Bird of Paradise looks like a quivering, pastel-colored feather duster caught in an invisible pinball machine.
Image by Tim Laman, Nat Geo Creative
Mindo, Ecuador:
Embraced by cloud forest almost a mile above sea level, the enclave of Mindo in Ecuador is a honey trap for hummingbirds. Spend a morning at one of the valley’s many sugar-feeder stations to admire these turbocharged gems—with evocative names like Shining Sunbeam and Glowing Puffleg. While you’re at it, indulge your own sweet tooth with a bar of heavenly, shade-grown local chocolate.
Image by Karine Aigner, Nat Geo Creative
Hula Valley, Israel:
At the geographic crossroads of Eurasia and Africa, upwards of a billion birds may pass through Israeli airspace each fall before crossing the Sahara Desert. Wetland restoration projects have been so successful that many birds now spend the winter, too, and the Israeli government feeds corn and seeds to tens of thousands of Common Cranes in the Hula Valley to decrease crane damage to agricultural fields. A movable hide lets viewers sneak into the midst of this real-life spectacle.
Image by Doron Horowitz/Redux
Nagaland, India:
Several years ago, when conservationists visited the remote province of Nagaland on the border of India and Myanmar, they discovered more than a million Amur Falcons gathering in dense roosts near Doyang Reservoir—apparently a launching point for the falcons’ nonstop, 13,000-mile migratory flight to southern Africa. At its peak in October, this stopover may hold the world’s largest concentration of raptors.
Image by Caisii Mao/Getty Images
. digitalrev.com2018-3-14 03:00