He also brought out a big bird of prey called a ferruginous hawk, a bird from the western part of the United States:Īnd maybe my favorite was a small owl called a burrowing owl:īurrowing owls are pretty cute, wouldn’t you say? I would love to see them in the wild someday.Īs for Deron Meador, the guy who brought us all of the birds, his organization is called Adventures with Raptors, and he doesn’t have a website yet-just a Facebook page. The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, which is one of my go-to sources for bird info, describes the barred owl as having “soulful brown eyes,” and I think that’s exactly right.ĭeron also had a bird that’s definitely not from around here-a spectacled owl, which is found in Central and South America: Not to be confused with the barn owl is the barred owl, named for its striped feathers: That facial disk, as it’s called, is designed to collect sounds and direct them toward the owl’s ears-wherever the heck those are. Next, a barn owl, which impressed me with its big round face: First, an American kestrel, a small, colorful predator that you sometimes see on power lines along Pennsylvania roads: Below are the ones I was able to photograph before I had to scoot off to an image-critique session I’d signed up for. (The birds were tethered, so they weren’t going anywhere.)ĭeron had a whole bunch of cages with him, an incredible variety of raptors. There’s a wooded area right outside the performing-arts center where the expo took place, so the guy who provided the raptors, Deron Meador-more on him in a moment-would just bring a bird out of one of the cages and position it on a tree branch at the edge of the woods, giving us a nice natural backdrop for our images. This year they offered a session where you could do flower photography, a chance to photograph macaws and other parrots (I wrote about that last week), and a session featuring birds of prey brought in for us to practice on. The expo is a nicely organized collection of opportunities for people who want to learn about photography: There’s an all-day lecture on Friday by a respected nature photographer, followed by a large array of choices for shorter seminars on Saturday and Sunday, mixed in with chances to do some actual shooting. Others have pointed to theater closures in China caused by the coronavirus as another factor working against Birds of Prey in the international market, but the film was never expected to do well in China, because Suicide Squad never even opened there.I want to share with you six images of six gorgeous birds of prey that I was lucky to photograph up close at the NatureVisions photography expo a few weekends ago. So, while it might have kept some younger fans away, it's not fair to suggest that the rating itself is what harmed the film's box office potential. While many are quick to point out Birds of Prey's R-rating and February release date as a potential disadvantages, it's important to note another R-rated antihero film, Deadpool, found success in February 2016. RELATED: Birds of Prey: Why Some 'Fans' Are Cheering For the Film to Flop

Especially when Harley Quinn's previous big-screen appearance was in a poorly received film. However, Birds of Prey reviews didn't arrive until three days before the film's release. And, while the marketing finally fully kicked into gear by that point, for the general audience, it might've been too late to care. It's widely believed that when a studio is confident in its product, it will hold critics screenings about two weeks before the film's release, with reviews following shortly afterward to buoy audience anticipation and drive ticket sales. Also working against it was the late review embargo.

Birds of prey 2017