I was out shooting in the forest near my town at the Mazatzal Mountains outside of Payson, Arizona looking for Northern Flickers. i was at the top of this wash with a big drop off looking across and into the wash at the birds in the trees. out of nowhere this Cardinal flew over my shoulder from behind and perched on this tree 10 ft away from me at eye level. He sat there for a bit checking me out. it was probably 10 or 15 seconds but it was such a cool moment it felt like longer. The auto focus was having trouble focusing on it and kept catching the background instead but I managed to get these 2 photos just before it flew off. Such a cool experience i didn't even know cardinals came this far into the area.
submitted by /u/AZtowelie[link] [comments]