Birds Here, Birds There

Although I spent almost three decades in the United States and spent many hours outdoors under the blue sky of that fair land, it was here in Bangladesh that I learned all about birds and birdwatching. And it has been an extraordinarily rewarding journey for me, since Bangladesh boasts almost 800 species of birds within her boundaries. When I decided to steer my photography - a lifelong passion – towards birds and wildlife, I found myself in technically difficult terrain. It was our deshi species that enabled me to practice and hone my bird photography skills.

During recent years, however, I have started making birding trips abroad: Iceland, Madagascar, Florida, and most recently, Brazil – these in addition to several other countries I visited where birding was a secondary activity.

In a distant land, I am usually looking for birds not seen in Bangladesh. But curiously, I get excited to find a common deshi bird in an unexpected location. It reminds me that we are all living beings on the same planet, tied to each other by threads of nature. For example, some years ago, I was hiking high over Lake Myvatn in Northeast Iceland on an early summer's day complete with cold wind and a light drizzle.  The landscape was typically Icelandic: rocks, beautiful mountains in the distance and, unexpectedly, some short beech trees. Imagine my surprise when I saw a White Wagtail (Khanjan) jumping around on the branches. I am used to seeing wagtails dancing and prancing near our hot and humid rivers and ponds; to see it in the cold on this remote island was jarring. “How did you get here? I wanted to ask it.

Waterbirds, such as egrets, and shorebirds found in the mud, such as sandpipers, are universal, and one can see them aplenty in most geographies. However, I was unsettled to see very few Great Egrets (Boro Bok) during my trip to Madagascar.

Whenever I return from such a trip I impatiently look through my photographs to assess my catch. I have come to expect that really good photographs would be rare. I am not talking about photographing a new species, but simply a good, eye-catching photograph. My photographs of birds of Bangladesh are usually better than birds of foreign lands.

It took me some thought to understand why.

First, in foreign lands, many species are new to me, so the excitement of seeing them detracts from actual picture-making. Efforts for making a well-composed photograph take a back seat to obtaining photographic evidence. But back home, when photographing familiar birds I have photographed numerous times before, I strive to make a better photograph than the last good one.

Second, over the years I have internalized the habits of our birds, so I can predict better what they are going to do. I understand their habitats and territories, how they feed, how they fly from a perch, etc. With prediction comes better poses and action. I am less familiar with the habits of exotic species.

Third, it is a matter of simply spending time watching the birds. At home, I have the luxury of lingering at one spot, or returning there, to get a better photograph. However, time in the field is always limited in foreign trips.

So, the excitement of foreign birding trips notwithstanding, it is home that offers me my best shots.

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