Honesty in Posting Bird Photographs

I recently read an article on certain practices in posting bird photographs online. Generally it dealt with honesty particularly if the picture being posted was that of a captive bird or taken in the wild. The term "captive" has quite a broad coverage - including, but not limited to - birds in cages, zoos or aviaries. It also applies to tethered birds (usually parrots and raptors), those used in falconry, and even "free-roaming" avian species that are in farms or similar conditions.

Taken at the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao. This is a captive bird.

Helemeted Guineafowl taken in a farm in Pililla, Rizal

Another issue which I would like to add is the posting of composite images. Mostly these are done to show the progress of a bird in flight or when prey is being captured. Sometimes the background is altered to make the image more aesthetic. Then there is the combining of two or more images to make the photo more attractive and interesting.

composite of two images

Photographs like those, in my opinion, should be properly labeled as such...that the photo was not taken in the wild or if it was a composite image or had been altered using Photoshop or similar programs. We bird photographers should be honest whenever we post pictures we have taken.

The best bird photographers are the honest bird photographers.