Backyard Birds Revealed Puts America’s Favorite Birds in the Spotlight

A father-and-son wildlife images group turned their cameras on the birds round their Massachusetts dwelling. The outcome: an up-close, tremendous slow-motion have a look at the wonderful aerial feats of those beloved birds.

Story and pictures by Tim and Russell Laman

March 2, 2026

The Yard Birds Revealed video collection is sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited.
Initially revealed October 2025; up to date March 2026.

Through the years we’ve traveled far overseas on wildlife images assignments to doc among the world’s most unique birds—spending days perched 100 ft excessive in a tree blind within the New Guinea rainforest cover to {photograph} birds-of-paradise, and sweating it out within the Indonesian jungle to film hornbills.

Sooner or later again at dwelling in Massachusetts, we had a curious thought: What may we reveal if we skilled our state-of-the-art digital cameras on the beloved titmice, chickadees, and woodpeckers in our yard?

That concept hatched into a brand new internet collection with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited. Over 5 episodes, we flip the highlight on widespread birds, utilizing a few of our favourite cinematography instruments—tremendous slow-motion, excessive close-ups, unorthodox digital camera angles—to disclose the small print of birds’ lives that yard birders don’t see with the bare eye.

By the point filming wrapped on the fifth episode, it was one of the crucial enjoyable and rewarding shoots we will bear in mind—right here’s a style of what we obtained.

A Ballet within the Air

Titmice and chickadees are such enjoyable birds to observe as they make their busy visits to our feeders. However they transfer so quick it’s arduous to completely grasp how skillful their flying is. When our 1,000-frames-per-second digital camera slowed down the motion, we may see the entire ballet of intricate motions concerned in touchdown on the feeder. These little birds flip their our bodies vertically in mid-air and virtually fly backwards, braking with their tail and utilizing their lengthy legs as shock absorbers to cease on a dime …or at a sunflower seed. At super-slo-mo frame-by-frame, we may see how every feather within the wing works in live performance, and got here to grasp the whirl of movement we see day-after-day.

Two Methods to Climb a Tree

Woodpeckers at all times face upwards, whereas nuthatches face each which method on the tree trunk. It’s one thing a birder notices when watching these birds within the forest. To higher perceive how their actions differed, we mounted particular wide-angle cameras proper alongside the tree trunks in our yard. As a White-breasted Nuthatch zigzagged by, we seen how completely centered its little spherical physique is over its legs. Brief tail out of the best way, it maneuvers utilizing lengthy claws to grip the bark. For nuthatches, agility is the secret as they search each crevice for meals, whether or not head up or head down. Woodpeckers, then again, are all about energy. They’ve a singular tripod stance, dealing with up and leaning away from the tree on lengthy stiff tail feathers, then pulling with their robust legs and invoice to whack into the wooden and get at beetle larvae contained in the bark, the place no different birds can attain.

Cavity Curious

In a forest, woodpecker holes are a invaluable commodity. Species that make the most of tree cavities however can’t make their very own holes—similar to titmice, nuthatches, and bluebirds—want them for nesting [see The Hole Story, Spring 2025]. We positioned our small, wide-angle cameras close to a tree cavity to rise up shut and private and see which birds would drop by to conduct an inspection. Then we had enjoyable creating our personal synthetic cavity with a back-door digital camera searching from contained in the nest gap. The ensuing photographs confirmed cavity-curious birds enjoying peek-a-boo. Should you’ve ever seen a chicken pausing in its each day routine to stay its head inside a tree cavity, it was in all probability searching the native actual property.

Feeder Skirmishes

A few of our most fun footage got here from watching birds jockey for place on the feeder. Utilizing our super-slo-mo digital camera we captured some intense altercations that regarded far more dramatic than we may see at regular velocity. Tufted Titmice had been among the most fun to observe—their crests are so expressive because the birds sign whether or not they intend to face their floor or are simply bluffing. In a single skirmish two titmice confronted off with crests absolutely raised; they meant enterprise. The titmouse flying into the feeder hoped to drive off its rival, however its sleeked-back crest says it wasn’t 100% sure. Certain sufficient, the perched titmouse drove the brand new arrival away virtually earlier than it landed—in an acrobatic, twisting dive that took our breath away once we watched the motion in sluggish movement.