Bird photography takes flight with high-end cameras

Big telephoto lenses can magnify birds that are too easily spooked to photograph up close. Here, a California quail — California's state bird — shows off his distinctive plume at Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco.

American avocets at sunrise in the low-tide mudflats in San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto.

A ruddy turnstone looks for tasty tidbits among the rocks on the shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio. The bird got its name from the way it flips stones over to find food.

A Forster's tern looks for fish to snatch from the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto, California.

The massive objective lens at the business end of Canon's 600mm supertelephoto lens will draw stares from curious passersby. But even a lens this size — it's about 2 feet long with its protective lens hood attached — can't magnify tiny or distant birds as much as a photographer would like.

A Brandt's cormorant, a bird that dives underwater to feed on fish, flies above the Pacific Ocean.

A great horned owl shows fierce yellow eyes in Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco.

Four ducks are silhouetted against the sun, complete with a handful of sunspots, rising over the San Francisco Bay. This shot illustrates just how much reach you can get with a 600mm telephoto lens with a 1.4x extender.

A common murre gobbles a fish in the Pacific Ocean west of San Francisco.

A group of common murre fly above the Pacific Ocean.

A great blue heron snatches breakfast out of San Francisco Bay estuary in Palo Alto, California.

A brown pelican plunges bill-first into San Francisco Bay.

A red-tailed hawk looks for prey from a treetop perch in Point Reyes National Seashore.

A chestnut-sided warbler looks upward at Magee Marsh in northern Ohio.

A barn swallow perches atop some concertina wire near the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto, California.

A western gull wades through the Pacific Ocean waves at Point Reyes National Seashore.

A black phoebe, a type of flycatcher, sings in the morning in Palo Alto, California.

A great egret flies over Magee Marsh in Ohio.

A great egret catches a draft from a formation of American white pelicans headed out for a day's hunting on the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto, California.

Magee Marsh is home to a few bald eagle nests. The eagles mostly prey on fish in nearby marshes or Lake Erie.

Common murre roost by the thousand on the Farallon Islands 32 miles west of San Francisco. It's not a sight you'll see on the mainland, where foxes, coyotes, cats, rats and other predators eat birds and eggs.

A western bluebird perches on a plant in Point Reyes National Seashore.

American avocets wake up in the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto, California.

A palm warbler perches in the sun at Magee Marsh in northern Ohio.

A Nashville warbler looks for insects to eat in a tree at Magee Marsh in northern Ohio.

CNET's Stephen Shankland photographs birds on Lake Merritt in Oakland, California.

Big telephoto lenses help photograph birds such as this pigeon guillemot, but it's hard to frame them when the birds are flying fast, and the bigger the magnification, the harder the framing.

A magnolia warbler perches at Magee Marsh in northern Ohio's Biggest Week in American Birding event. Birders will recognize this as the species on the cover of the popular Sibley Guide to Birds.

A resting American avocet on the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto, California.

A black-throated green warbler perches in Magee Marsh in northern Ohio.

Canada geese are abundant in the US, but they like Magee Marsh, too. Here some goslings swim in the marsh's waters.

A western sandpiper pokes through the shallow water for food in the San Francisco Bay.

Suburban birders might recognize the Cooper's hawk — especially since they often stalk smaller birds near birdfeeders.

An American avocet comes in for a landing in the shallows of the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto, California.

A black-throated green warbler at Magee Marsh in northern Ohio.

A tufted puffin takes off from the Pacific Ocean water near the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco.

A black-crowned night heron attacks prey in the shallows of San Francisco Bay at dawn in Palo Alto, California.

A killdeer with a distinctive red-ringed eye stands reflected in the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto, California.

A black and white warbler at Magee Marsh in Northern Ohio.

A white-crowned sparrow atop a fencepost in Point Reyes National Seashore.

You don't need to be miles away from civilization to see birds. This song sparrow was singing vigorously in the middle of San Francisco.

A great egret lurks motionlessly in some brush, waiting for fish or frogs to come near.

A black-throated blue warbler looks over its shoulder.

A great blue heron strides through Magee Marsh in northern Ohio.

A Caspian tern flies over the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto, California.

A northern shoveler duck, so named because it shovels its bill through the muck to find food, waddles through low-tide mudflats of San Francisco Bay estuary in Palo Alto, California.

CNET reporter Stephen Shankland photographing birds on San Francisco Bay with a Canon 5D Mark IV camera, Canon EF 1.4x III teleconverter, Canon EF 600mm F4/L IS II lens, Gitzo tripod, and Wimberley WH200 tripod head.