No means No! This concept cannot be emphasized enough

 

Most of the labor involved with the photographing of wildlife, particularly, birds is my ability to determine whether or not I have the consent to record by the subject of my desire.  I take great joy in the privledge I have to be able to go out into a given habitat and record a few images of whomever awaits me. Because nature is a wild place, the fauna perform a delicate dance of survival; eating, and propagating themselves without becoming an untimely prey item, roadkill, or some other unfortunate mishap. Having that said, it isn’t as if the the animal I seek is going to jump out of the brush somewhere and pose for me. O.K. On rare occasions, that kind of vogue event certainly occurs. However, in my experience whenever I go out to query for a wild animal for a photograph, most often the answer I get from the natural world is a resounding “No”.

So I decided to put together a brief and useful visual guide to help you determine the mood of the bird. Particularly if you are someone like myself who is a little slow on taking social hints. The following imagery are a few indicators you may receive when a bird in question has better things to do than to vogue for your camera.