The Sparrow Rule: the first rule of bird photography

Hi everyone!

It’s summer time here in Germany, and the temperatures are mostly in the low 30s. (~90 °F). Clearly, it is not as hot as Australia or Singapore. But as they have not yet heard of the magic of air-conditioning here, work and study have been sluggish. Luckily, we’ve just had a brief thunderstorm; the temperature has dropped significantly, allowing me to gather my energy back and write this blog post.

Today, I’d like to discuss the first rule of thumb I learned in bird photography: the Sparrow Rule. The idea is that taking beautiful photos of a colourful bird is not difficult— you only need to capture what nature has already created. Instead of congratulating yourself on your work, you should, in your mind’s eye, replace the beautiful bird in your photo with a plain one, like a sparrow, and see if the photo still holds. If it does, you know you've done a good job.

I’ve taken this rule further and become obsessed with photographing plain, colourless birds. In these photos, instead of focusing on the bird’s colours, I concentrate on the environment, the composition, or, if possible, the bird’s character and personality. Sometimes, I even take a colour photo and turn it into black and white to emphasize the effect.

Below are some of these photos and the thoughts that went through my mind as I composed them.

Silver Gull on the beach | Sydney, Australia

Here is a Silver Gull, a plain and common bird seen by the hundreds in every Australian body of water.  This individual was walking along the beach, away from the main flock. The sea was calm, and ripples turned white foam as they rolled into the shallow water.

Instead of focusing on the white and grey gull standing on the yellow sand against the backdrop of the blue water, I chose to concentrate on composition. The tracks in the sand and the foam on the water, as well as its shadow and reflection all guide the eyes to the bird.

Last but not least, I placed the gull in the picture according to the Golden Ratio. This ratio, derived from the Fibonacci sequence, has been known since the 17th century for establishing harmony in painting, architecture and other forms of art. By positioning the gull based on this ratio, I ensured the aesthetic balance of the photo.

Grey Heron and Swans | Germany

Early in the morning, the heron and swans were barely visible. They kept appearing and disappearing, turning from colourless shapes to silhouettes and back to birds, as the early morning mist kept thickening and dissipating. Here too, I focused on composition and used a principle similar to the one in the previous photo. But because I had swans in the background, I could compose the photo based not just on the Golden Ratio but on the complete Golden Spiral. This spiral, present in natural forms like flowers, shells, ferns, and galaxies, is ingrained in our consciousness and resonates with our sense of aesthetic.

Rose-ringed parakeet

In this picture, a green and pink parakeet against the backdrop of a deep blue sky could have created a spectacularly colourful image. However, I was drawn to the minimalism of the barren tree. By underexposing the picture, I managed to capture it as a silhouette. Later, in post-processing, I reduced the number of grey levels to turn the sky from grey to white.

Australian raven | Sydney

I was sitting on a hill overlooking the sea, where a flock of Australian ravens was playing in the gusts. The birds appeared powerful as they flew towards me, and I felt that the beautiful blue of the sky would distract from their strength. Black and white was the clear choice.

Brown gerygone | NSW, Australia

And here are two grey and brown gerygones. They are small (9cm) Australian forest birds that are easy to miss. I could hear their excited calls long before I saw them. They sounded so thrilled that I followed them until I found the nest they were building.

One of the pair collected materials while the other encouraged it by singing love songs and gazing at it with admiration, as if saying, “Look at the wonderful partner I have.”  In this case, colour did not matter; I aimed to capture the facial expressions and the look of love in their eyes.  

Did I manage in these photos to follow the Rule of Sparrow? Let me know what you think!

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