These are some photos of birds which are frequent visitors and residents of the Half Moon Bay Coastside area. They're easily recognized by locals.

In bird photography, I feel the bird is the art and I’m the recorder. Sometimes the bird reveals its art in my camera lens. It makes no difference if the bird is exotic or common — any bird can make a great picture.

The variability of birds is virtually unlimited with respect to color, lighting, wing position and attitude.

For the photographer, the key is to always be ready with the camera for those special one-of-a-kind displays that a bird will reveal in an instant and then vanish.

An instant is all you have and often you will miss it, but on rare occasions, the magic will be revealed — and that makes all the missed shots worth it.

Jack Sutton is a photographer living in Moss Beach. Most of his subjects center around birds as well as landscapes in the Bay Area. Visit his website at here.

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