Let's start at the beginning: since April 2023, I have been into photography. Not having any experience with photography before, I bought a 2nd-hand entry-level camera, namely the Nikon D5600 with a kit lens 55-105 mm. I started taking pictures of insects to better understand the manual settings of the camera, and by watching many youtube videos, I already started to get some results. Since the many youtube videos I had watched were based on taking wildlife photos (mainly birds), my interest in this grew more and more. Not much later, I had purchased a Tamron lens 150-600 G2 f6.3.
With the combination Nikon D5600+ Tamron I have taken many nice shots, although I must admit that birds in bird's-eye view were a difficult job for this combination.
Since I have been doing videography for 10 years, I manage pretty well to determine the right composition (before taking the picture), and place the light as well as possible on the subject although not all birds cooperate willingly.

In September I was able to acquire a Nikon D500 for a small amount of money, which, according to the reviews, would be the best birdwatching camera, so I had to find the right manual settings again. I learned a lot with this combination. Photographing birds in flight was more successful with this combination than with the D5600. From then on I also started to visit hides, but mostly I continue to photograph the birds in their natural environment. I think shelters are a great initiative to get a good picture of certain shy species without disturbing them. Because the Tamron 150-600 needs a lot of light, I couldn't resist buying a fixed lens (which needs less light). This ended up being the Sigma 500mm f4 in combination with the NikonD850.

I also want to mention that most bird species are listed by biotope: forest and heathland; field and meadow; marsh and water; coast and dune, this makes it easier to classify them.With each bird you will find clear information, if you have an addition, or a fun fact, you can always comment at the bottom of this page.