I am very proud to announce that GreatBirdPics.com is online! The website took over a year to create and it went live on October 29, 2019. I’m Mike Warner, a retired school superintendent, and I built GreatBirdPics.com for people like me – those that are passionate about bird watching and bird photography.
A Free Bird Photography Website to Share Beautiful Bird Pictures
Like many amateur bird photographers, I had thousands of beautiful pictures of birds stored on my computer with limited ways to share them with others. So I decided to create GreatBirdPics.com. I designed it for all amateur bird photographers who would like to share their pictures with the world. Once a member (it’s free) uploads their images they will have their own online gallery (My Flock) for all to enjoy. But GreatBirdPics.com is more than a photo gallery! I wanted it to bring together the community of amateur bird photographers, so it also has a Forum, member-to-member messaging and a Blog so members can communicate with other like-minded enthusiasts from around the world.
When I began designing GreatBirdPics.com* I started with two central concepts – the website must have a powerful search engine and the images must be high quality.
Powerful Database
At the core of the website is a powerful database search engine. Whenever a member uploads one of their beautiful bird pictures they fill in a form describing the bird and what it is doing. This includes information like species name, location seen, gender, age, type of activity, and more. When members go to the Search page they can use the database to look for very specific images. Here are some examples of searches you can do:
- Adult male Northern Shoveler flying in Michigan.
- Female Red-legged Honeyeater feeding in Costa Rica.
- Painted Stork flying in India.
- Male Scarlet Tanager in Ohio.
- Pileated Woodpecker making a nest in Michigan.
- Common Oystercatcher with chick in New Zealand.
- Cinnamon Hummingbird scratching itself in Honduras.
A search doesn’t have to be that specific. You can tell it to show you a GreatBirdPic of every species in Illinois – like an online field guide! Or you can search for GreatBirdPics of a specific species of bird. The possibilities are only limited by what has been uploaded into the database (and your curiosity).
Great Bird Pictures Wanted
I want to emphasize the Great in GreatBirdPics. Too often when I posted one of my bird pictures on Facebook or Flickr it would be next to a picture of a bird someone took with their phone through a screen-door, or of somebody’s cute puppy. Sorry, but I don’t want those pictures on GreatBirdPics.com. When I was selecting pictures from my collection to post, I rejected hundreds of them because they weren’t good enough for my own website! I will curate the pictures so it is possible that some pictures will be rejected if the image is of poor quality. I don’t want to scare anyone away from posting their pics. I’m not looking for professional quality pics – just ones in which the bird is clearly recognizable. Upload the pictures you want the world to see.
Why Birds?
There are over 10,000 species of birds and through them we can enjoy God’s diversity in the world. Scientific studies of birds are used as an indicator of how our world is doing – climate change and loss of habitat by humans forces birds into new areas or reduces their numbers.
We Need Your Bird Pictures!
My goal for GreatBirdPics.com is to have a beautiful picture of every species seen in every country and every U.S. state. We’re a long way from that now, but with your help we’ll get there. Happy birding!
*A special mention to the people who actually took my designs and made them into a website – Kenny, Lisa and Sean at Appnet. Without them GreatBirdPics.com would never have become a reality. Thanks!