Pixiq

When photographing wildlife I aim to seek out some behavior, such as one animal interacting with another or youngsters frolicking with their parents; whereas shots of a single bird or mammal standing with its flank towards the camera do nothing for me. However, birds or mammals amongst plants or shrubs in flower can help to add both interest and color to a static shot.  

The flowers should be in their prime rather than past their floral peak. Amongst the easiest locations to work are nesting seabird colonies because of the sheer number of birds milling around in a small area. Atlantic puffins, kittiwakes and gulls can nest alongside clusters of thrift or sea pink flowers, while on Midway Atoll in the Pacific, Laysan albatross mingle with golden crown-beard flowers.

It was in the Pantanal that I spotted a toucan stamping on a pink flower, which I initially thought was rather strange behavior. That was until the bird picked up a fallen flower with its oversized but lightweight bill, so it could suck the nectar from the base.

For most of the year gorse is a prickly shrub, but during springtime, the yellow flowers enliven many a road and heathland in Britain. Come December in the Falkland Islands, where the settlers introduced gorse, it adds swathes of color as well as a pungent smell of coconuts. It is possible to get birds perching atop flowering gorse or mammals walking past it.

When you first see a resplendent male golden pheasant parading through a bluebell carpet, you have to do a double take, for this is a Chinese native and nothing could be more quintessentially British than the azure carpets of bluebells in spring. Yet, at London's Kew Gardens, the birds walk through the blue carpet plucking the flower stems to feed on the sappy stalks. 

Getting a clear shot of a bird feeding on a flower is an extra bonus. If you do your homework and find out which birds pollinate certain flowers and the time they bloom, it is not too difficult to get shots. On my last trip to South Africa, it was a very poor year for the massed annuals because of lack of rain, but the shrubby proteas put on a good show that attracted both sunbirds and sugarbirds.

It takes time to find these kinds of shots, for it is a matter of luck as to whether an animal pauses beside or atop a flowering plant. Nevertheless, as you travel around you will gradually be able to gather a collection of images combining fauna with flora.