INDEX PAGES:
Alphabetical index
Taxonomic index: Nonpasserines
Taxonomic index: Passerines
World bird index

A selection from my photographs, arranged in gallery form on my Pbase site.

Technical stuff for anyone interested in equipment and techniques.

Links to some birding, bird photo, and digiscoping sites that I've enjoyed.

Tom Grey's Bird Pictures

I'm Tom Grey, a bird photographer living on the Stanford campus near Palo Alto in the San Francisco Bay Area. This site is my illustrated bird list, showing the species I've photographed since I took up the hobby in 2002.

That was when I started to digiscope birds to help me identify them as a birder, which I'd been for about ten years. I soon got more and more interested in the photography side, and less devoted to keeping lists of birds seen and identified. The decisive move from birder who takes pictures to bird photographer came in November 2003, when I bought my first digital single-lens reflex camera.

Since then, I've gotten hooked on bird photography. I've upgraded my equipment, and I hope improved my skills, and as a result more of the pictures on this site are relatively recent. But I keep less than excellent images, old or new, when they're the best I've got for that species. I enjoy adding to my list of bird species photographed -- the remnant, I guess, of the birder's yen to extend lists.

For some technical information about my photography (and a bit on digiscoping) look here. For those whose main interest is the photography side, I have a separate bird photography gallery (with lots of the same pictures as on this one) on the photo-sharing site PBase, where technical data on photos can be found. From that site here is a page of my pictorial favorites.

FORMAT. The pictures on this site are displayed on image pages, one for each bird species. The species photographed in North America are listed on three index pages, one alphabetical and two (for songbirds and other birds) in taxonomic order. Species photographed only outside North America are listed on the World bird index. When I have photographs of a species both from North America and elsewhere, the latter are included on the North American species pages.

The four index pages are arranged as lists of links to species pages, which display pictures of birds of that species. Passing your cursor over a bird's picture gives basic information: the species of the bird, and where and when the picture was taken. Places are in my home base of Santa Clara County, California  unless another California county or another state or country is given.

On many species pages, pictures are supplemented by text, including discussion of identification issues. (I welcome comments, and especially corrective ones, of my captions and text; I'm an enthusiastic birder, but no expert.) My maximum size for web images started at 640 x 480, and is now 1000 x 800. I'm gradually upgrading old images to the larger web display size, but many smaller ones remain.

PHOTOGRAPHY PLACES. The pictures on this page show some places where I photograph birds. Two of these, pictured left, are on the Stanford campus, where we live and work. ("We" includes Barbara Babcock, who often notices birds that I miss.) Top left is our backyard garden, and below that is a picture of Frenchman's Park, a short walk from our house.

On the top right is a view of Arastradero Preserve, a natural area in the Santa Cruz Mountain foothills only a short drive from my house, with a stream, lake, and characteristic California oak savannah habitat. The picture below that is from the Moss Landing / Elkhorn Slough area, on the Monterey County coast, which we visit several times a year. Some of my other regular spots for bird photography in Santa Clara County include Palo Alto Baylands Park, Shoreline Park in Mountain View, and the marshes of Alviso.

I take pictures of birds at other spots in the Bay Area and nearby in Northern California. I also bring photo equipment on trips further afield, and many pictures here have come from those expeditions.

Favorites

423 species photographed in North America; 45 others elsewhere

Last Revised: 8/27/10

NEW SPECIES ADDED
(from an August trip to Stratford, Ontario, and a July trip to Masschusetts and Maine)

Red-eyed Vireo

Black Guillemot
Common Eider
Northern Parula
Upland Sandpiper

For my most recent bird pictures, see the "Latest" gallery at my Pbase site, plus any other galleries that appear in front of it. I usually get new pictures up on Pbase before I add them to my species pages here.