Scissor-tailed Flycatcher hovering over a wildflower meadow

A life list,
in photographs.

Explore the bird archive
SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER
SOUTH CAROLINA · 2025
275Species
photographed
A lifelong collection in progress
Bird of the Day
White IbisFrye family archive

The species archive

A growing
visual record.

A centralized record of the birds we’ve photographed, where we found them, and our favorite photos.

The field map

Every bird,
somewhere.

Explore the preserves, parks, towns, and wild places where the archive was photographed.

Explore the full map

Mammals

Wildlife,
beyond birds.

A smaller collection of the mammals we’ve encountered along the way.

Explore mammals

Trips and places

Photography,
by destination.

Mountain views and wild places, collected one journey at a time.

Explore trips

About

We’re on a mission to photograph as many species of bird as possible. After a trip to Alaska in 2022, taking pictures of bears and eagles with our phones, we decided to purchase a proper camera. It’s been game on ever since.

How this works

Our goal is to capture ID-able photos of each bird species. A photo might not be magazine worthy, but if it’s verifiable with the Merlin Bird ID app (either via image recognition or bird call) then it’s good enough for us. We cross reference the bird’s location with known migration patterns, time of year and Merlin to confirm 100% of bird species before posting.

But it’s not just a numbers game. Once a bird has been cataloged, the mission becomes – improve the photo. Whether that’s composition, quality, color – there is always room for improvement.

While we’re out looking for birds, we stumble upon mammals and some pretty neat scenes too – we we figured we might as well post those as well

The Gear

Canon R5 MII

RF 200-800 F6.3-9

RF 24-70 F2.8 L

RF 15-35 F2.8 L