Photos and Videos Bird photos and videos

Photo Galleries: A tour of the hemisphere’s captivating bird life

This collection of galleries brings together images from years of travel chasing birds. Each photo takes you to a different story about the beauty of the birds, their behavior, their mating, their foraging and survival tools Check out the galleries and to find links to related posts.

Click on photos to see gallery spreads and videos

Warbler Gallery: Beauty in Motion

A Black-and-white Warbler strikes a pose

A Red-tailed Hawk is the cover for our gallery of raptors of all kinds, in flight, on the hunt, caring for the young and looking for a mate.

Raptors Gallery: Soaring Above the Rest

A Red-tailed Hawk comes in for a landing

Birds in Flight Gallery: The Magnificence of Midair

American Flamingo

This is the cover for a gallery of spoonbills. Here, a Roseate Spoonbill circles over its rookery in Central Florida, its wingspan on display.

Roseate Spoonbill: Origins from the Dinosaur Days

A gallery of these gorgeous pinkish-red wading birds

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovers in midair.

Hummingbirds from Across the Hemisphere

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovers in midair.

This is the cover for a gallery of kingfishers, the remarkably fast and skittish bird found in different species all over the hemisphere. Here, a Belted Kingfisher perches beside the water, its striking blue-and-white plumage and oversized bill making it one of the most photogenic and instantly recognizable waterbirds in North America

Kingfishers: The Speed Demons of the Birding World

A Belted Kingfisher spans its tail, ready for takeoff.

A close-up of this Great Blue Heron is the cover for our gallery on herons of every kind. They are among the easier birds to find and to watch, often moving so slowly they hardly move at all, then strike with a speed that takes your breath away.

Heron Gallery: The Family Comes in All Sizes

A Great Blue Heron in profile

This Barn Swallow is the cover for our gallery on a swallows community that we found in Wyoming caught in a windstorm that let us catch the birds in rare midair moments.

Swallow Gallery: A Bird that (Almost) Never Stops

This Barn Swallow takes a rare break

This Barred Owl lived next to use for our years in Raleigh, which ignited a relationship that led to hundreds of photos and the post that goes with it.

Gallery of the Barred Owl Next Door

The arresting stare of a Barred Owl

A Wood Stork chick, just a few weeks old, looks nothing like the loom giant wading bird it will grow into over time.

Gallery: Giants of the wading birds

This tiny stork chick is how they begin.

A Red-Shouldered Hawk glides over the fields where it makes its home, and where it hunts almost constantly to put food into the mouths of its chicks.

Red-Shouldered Hawk: Fovever on the Hunt

Here’s this acrobatic hawk in action

This Moss-backed Tanager takes a perch on a branch in central Ecuador. The photo serves as the cover for our gallery of some of the most beautiful birds found on Earth.

Tanagers: A Sprawling Network of the Most Colorful Birds

A Moss-backed Tanager we’d always hope to find

The White Ibis is a striking bird, with a definite comical side as it comes in for landings, or huddles together for a social hour.

Ibis Gallery: This Wading Bird Stands Alone

The Ibis beak, bill and talons give it away every time.

Purple Gallinule makes its way along the waters edge in a Florida swamp, ever so distinctive for its deep blue and shimmering plumage.

Gallinule Gallery: The Rembrandt of Birds

A Purple Gallinule seems to stare at ts reflection in the water.

This Pileated Woodpeckers arrives at the top of branch it had been climbing moments before flying off to its next stop in Central Florida.

Pileated Gallery: King of Woodpeckers

The continent’s largest woodpecker makes itself known.

“A fascinating and vital story”

Can We Save Our Vanishing Birds?

Come along on a journey to the frontlines of the struggle to save birds across the hemisphere. To help get you started, you can read the first chapter here that touches on the key themes, inspiring players and sometimes treacherous work that is helping shape the future of birds. Here’s what critics are saying:

“The Gyllenhaals are skilled storytellers.” – The New York Tiimes

“A Wing and a Prayer warns for the dire consequences of loss of bird population — and how we can stop it.” – Washington Post

“In this five-star journey into our birding history, present and future, the authors make clear that ultimately, it’s up to us — you and me — to care and to act.” – The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or from independent booksellers. For a look at Simon & Schuster’s summary of the book, click here.