ABOUT US
We are photographers who like to shoot birds. Not with guns of course, but with our cameras. Like countless others, we shared our images with others through Flickr and other image sharing websites. There are certainly many advantages to using this type of service and they are very popular. However, with over 5 billion images and growing at an extraordinary rate, it has become harder and harder to find a selection of high quality images on specific subjects such as a particular species of bird.
There are of course many great images of many species of birds on these sites. There are also a lot of poor images - soft focus, obstructed views, duplicate or near duplicate images, and badly composed photos. We think there is a better way to present these magnificent creatures and give recognition to the photographers who spend uncountable hours learning their craft and working in the field to capture the beauty and wonder of our wild birds.
We also don't want to become photo elitists. We are not the aesthetic police. However, there are basic minimum requirements that must be met in order to show our respect for the animal and for our craft. There are rules used to guide the technical and ascetic aspects in judging the quality of a photograph. We recognize also that there are many successful exceptions to almost all of these rules. We spell out the process that is used to decide on which photos to include on the site in the Submission section of the site.
AmericanWild Bird.com does not try to be the source of information on all things birds. There are already many good sites and books which serve that purpose. Our resource section has links to many of the sources that we use for this site and our own study of birds.
Finally a word about the DotCom aspect of the site. We are a not for profit organization (but not the tax exempt type.) We receive a small income from the ads that appear in the Resource section and from the books and other products purchased from affiliate sites. This is no way to get rich, but it does help pay for server resources and a very small staff to keep things interesting and online, so we appreciate it greatly when you use links on this site to make purchases.
We are open to constructive comments. We want this site to be a valuable resource to fellow photographers and birders. If you have any ideas on how we can improve the site to achieve that goal please send us an email at info@americanwildbird.com.
