For bird photographers, patience and a keen eye are essential, but often the most magical ingredient in a truly captivating image is light. While midday sun can cast harsh shadows and flatten details, the ‘golden hour’ – that brief period shortly after sunrise and before sunset – holds the transformative power to elevate ordinary sightings into extraordinary photographs. But beyond the warm, soft glow, understanding how light interacts with your subject and its environment can reveal hidden details, accentuate vibrant colors, and even bring elusive birds out of the shadows.

This guide explores the subtle nuances of natural light, demonstrating how mastering its qualities, even in seemingly challenging conditions, can unlock the potential for breathtaking bird photography and unveil the beauty often missed in less flattering illumination.

Photography by Imogen Warren

The Golden Hour

The low angle of the sun during the golden hour casts a warm, golden hue over the landscape and the birds. This soft light minimizes harsh shadows, wrapping your subject in a flattering glow that enhances their natural colors and textures. Feathers appear richer and more detailed without the stark contrast of midday sun. The warm light intensifies the colors of the birds’ plumage. Reds become more vibrant, blues deepen, and yellows glow. Even subtle color variations within the feathers are brought out, adding depth and visual interest to your images.

Roseate Spoonbill in full daylight and during the golden hour

Lower Color Temperature

During the golden hour, the sun is low on the horizon, and its light travels through more of the Earth’s atmosphere. This process scatters away the shorter, cooler (blue and violet) wavelengths of light more effectively, leaving behind a higher proportion of the longer, warmer (red, orange, and yellow) wavelengths. This results in the characteristic warm, golden glow that bathes the scene and the birds.

Enhanced Saturation

This warm light can significantly enhance the saturation of the existing colors in a bird’s plumage. Think of it like adding a warm filter – the reds become richer, the yellows more vibrant, and even subtle hues within the feathers gain intensity. This effect makes the colors ‘pop’ and appear more visually appealing.

Revealing Underlying Tones

The soft, directional light of the golden hour can also reveal subtle undertones in a bird’s feathers that might be lost in the harsh, direct light of midday. For example, a seemingly brown bird might exhibit hints of red or gold in the warm light, adding complexity and beauty to the image.

Creating Contrast with Shadows

While the light itself is warm, the longer shadows cast during this time can create a beautiful contrast. These darker areas can make the brightly lit, warmly colored parts of the bird stand out even more, further enhancing the perceived vibrancy of the colors.

Owlet Nightjar in an overcast sky and during the golden hour

Diffused Light Softens Transitions

The light during the golden hour is also more diffused than direct sunlight. This softness means that the transitions between different colors on a bird’s plumage are smoother and more gradual, avoiding harsh lines and allowing the eye to appreciate the nuances of color blending.

Complementary Colors Pop

If your bird subject has colors that are complementary to the warm tones of the golden light (such as blues or greens), these colors can appear even more striking due to the natural contrast. The warm light emphasizes the coolness of the complementary colors, making them appear more vivid.

Catchlights in the Eyes

The low sun angle often creates beautiful catchlights – small reflections of light – in the bird’s eyes. These tiny highlights bring the subject to life, adding a crucial spark and making the bird appear more alert and engaging. 

During the midday sun, the light source is often directly overhead or at a high angle. This can result in harsh shadows under the brow of the bird or a catchlight that appears as a small, often blown-out (pure white with no detail) dot right in the center of the iris. While a catchlight is always good, the quality and position during the golden hour are significantly more appealing.

Black Shag in daylight and during the golden hour

Lower Angle, More Visible Reflection

As the sun dips closer to the horizon, the angle of incidence (the angle at which sunlight hits the eye) becomes lower. This lower angle often allows the reflection of the sun (the catchlight) to become more visible in the bird’s eye from your camera’s perspective. Instead of being obscured by the brow or appearing as a tiny, central point, the catchlight becomes a more prominent and noticeable feature.

Softer, More Gradual Light

The light during the golden hour is inherently softer and more diffused as it passes through more of the Earth’s atmosphere. This softer light translates into a softer, less harsh catchlight. Instead of a stark, blown-out white dot, you often get a gentler highlight with more subtle gradations of brightness. This retains detail within the catchlight itself and avoids distracting the viewer.

Position and Shape

The position of the catchlight during the golden hour is often more aesthetically pleasing. Because the sun is off to the side (either rising or setting), the catchlight tends to appear slightly off-center in the iris. This off-center placement adds a sense of life and direction to the bird’s gaze, making it feel more dynamic and engaged with its surroundings. The shape of the catchlight can also be more elongated or interesting, reflecting the shape of the low-hanging sun.

Depth and Dimension

The catchlight acts like a tiny mirror, reflecting the warm, golden tones of the surrounding light. This not only adds a beautiful color accent to the eye but also gives it a sense of depth and dimension. The eye no longer appears flat but has a wet, lifelike quality that draws the viewer in.

Black-necked Stork in daylight and during the golden hour

Connection and Engagement

A well-defined catchlight creates a crucial connection between the viewer and the subject. It makes the bird appear alive, aware, and present. Without a catchlight, the eye can look dull and lifeless, even if the rest of the image is technically perfect. The soft, inviting catchlight of the golden hour enhances this sense of connection and makes the bird more captivating.

Think of it this way: the golden hour paints the entire scene in a beautiful light, and that beauty is reflected in the miniature ‘window’ of the bird’s eye as a soft, well-placed catchlight, adding that essential spark of life to your photograph. It’s a small detail that makes a huge difference in the overall impact of the image.

Longer, Dramatic Shadows

The elongated shadows cast during the golden hour can add a sense of depth and dimension to your composition. These shadows can lead the viewer’s eye, create interesting patterns in the background, and emphasize the bird’s position within its environment.

Adding a Sense of Depth and Dimension

Midday sun tends to flatten the scene, casting shadows directly beneath the subject, which can make the image feel two-dimensional. During the golden hour, the low angle of the sun stretches shadows out across the landscape. This creates a stronger sense of depth, visually separating the bird from its background and giving the scene a more three-dimensional feel. The shadows act like leading lines, drawing the viewer’s eye through the image and towards the subject.

Creating Leading Lines and Visual Pathways

The long shadows cast by trees, branches, rocks, or even the bird itself can act as natural leading lines within your composition. These lines guide the viewer’s gaze towards the main subject, creating a more engaging and visually structured image. A shadow stretching towards the bird can subtly emphasize its presence and importance within the frame.

Chestnut Teal in daylight and during the golden hour

Emphasizing the Bird’s Position and Interaction with the Environment

The way a bird’s shadow falls can tell a story about its position and how it interacts with its surroundings. A long shadow cast across textured ground can highlight the terrain. If the bird is perched on a branch, its shadow stretching down the trunk can anchor it to its environment and provide context. This connection between the subject and its shadow adds narrative interest to the photograph.

Introducing Interesting Patterns and Shapes

The low light can create striking and unusual shadow patterns. The intricate shapes of branches or leaves can be projected as elongated silhouettes across the ground or even onto the bird itself, adding an artistic and abstract element to your shot. These patterns can transform an otherwise simple composition into something visually captivating.

Adding a Touch of Mystery and Drama

Long shadows can evoke a sense of atmosphere and mood. Depending on their direction and intensity, they can create a feeling of serenity in the soft light of dawn or a more dramatic and evocative mood as the sun begins to set. A bird partially obscured by its own long shadow can add an element of intrigue.

Highlighting Texture and Form

The raking light of the golden hour, combined with the long shadows, can accentuate the textures of the environment – the roughness of bark, the patterns in sand, the ripples in water. Similarly, the shadows can emphasize the form and contours of the bird itself, revealing subtle details in its plumage.

Golden-headed Cisticola in daylight and during the golden hour

Backlighting 

With the sun low on the horizon, you have a greater chance of capturing stunning backlit or rim-lit shots. Backlighting can create a soft halo of light around the bird, separating it beautifully from the background. Rim lighting highlights the edges of the feathers, adding a dramatic and ethereal quality.

Backlighting happens when the primary light source, the sun, is positioned behind your subject, the bird, from your perspective as the photographer. During the golden hour, with the sun low on the horizon, it becomes much easier to achieve this angle without the harshness of direct sunlight hitting your lens. Instead of the bird being fully illuminated from the front, the light now flows around it. This creates several beautiful effects

Soft Halo

The light diffusing around the edges of the bird’s feathers can produce a soft, glowing outline or halo. This beautifully separates the subject from the background, giving it a three-dimensional quality and a sense of ethereal softness.

Translucent Details

For certain parts of the bird, like wing feathers or downy areas, the backlight can make them appear almost translucent, revealing intricate details and textures that might be lost in front lighting. You might see the delicate structure of the feather vanes illuminated from within.

Silhouette Potential

Depending on the intensity of the backlight and your exposure settings, you can also create striking silhouettes where the bird appears as a dark shape against a brightly lit background. This can be particularly effective with interesting bird shapes or when capturing a bird in a dramatic pose against a colorful sky.

Soft Backgrounds

Because your subject is between you and the light source, the background often falls into soft shadow, helping to isolate the bird and make it the clear focal point.

Kelp Gull in dull light and during the golden hour

Rim Lighting

Rim lighting is a specific type of backlighting where the sun is positioned just to the side or slightly above or below the bird, still behind it. The angle is such that the light grazes the edges of the bird’s form. It creates a bright outline or ‘rim’ of light along the edges of the bird’s body, head, and wings. This effect is particularly stunning on subjects with textured feathers, as it accentuates each individual barb and vane.

Definition and Separation

The bright rim of light sharply defines the bird’s shape and beautifully separates it from a potentially busy or distracting background. It adds a crispness to the edges.

Emphasis on Form

Rim lighting highlights the contours and curves of the bird’s body, emphasizing its form and posture.

Dramatic Mood

This type of lighting often creates a dramatic and visually arresting mood, adding a sense of magic or intensity to the image.

Color Enhancement Along Edges

The light skimming the edges can sometimes subtly enhance the colors present there, making them appear more vibrant against the shadowed body.

To effectively capture backlighting and rim lighting, you often need to be mindful of your exposure. Metering directly on the brightly lit background can underexpose your bird, turning it into a silhouette. You might need to use spot metering on the bird or slightly overexpose to retain detail in the shadowed areas while still capturing the beautiful light effects around the edges. Experimentation is key to mastering these techniques during the enchanting golden hour.

Pied Stilt at midday and during the golden hour

Increased Bird Activity

Often, birds are more active during the cooler temperatures of the early morning and late afternoon, which coincide with the golden hour. This increased activity means more opportunities to capture interesting behaviors like foraging, flying, and interacting with their environment.

Cooler Temperatures, Higher Energy

After the heat of the day builds (or before it does), the cooler temperatures of the early morning and late afternoon create more comfortable conditions for birds to be active. They expend less energy regulating their body temperature, freeing them up for other essential activities like foraging, preening, and interacting. This increased energy often translates to more dynamic and engaging photographic subjects.

Peak Foraging Times

Many bird species are most actively foraging during the golden hours. They need to replenish energy reserves after a night of rest (morning) or before settling down for the night (evening). This means you’re more likely to witness them actively searching for food, catching insects, or feeding on berries and seeds, leading to more interesting action shots.

Social Interactions

The golden hours can also be times of increased social interaction among birds. You might see more birds congregating, calling to each other, or engaging in courtship behaviors (especially in the spring). These interactions can provide unique and compelling photographic moments that capture the social dynamics of bird communities.

Migration Movements

For migratory species, the early morning can be a prime time for continuing their journeys after a night’s rest, and the late afternoon can see them making final movements before settling down for the night. This can offer opportunities to photograph birds in flight against the beautiful golden light.

Reduced Human Disturbance

In many locations, human activity tends to be lower during the early morning and late afternoon. This can lead to birds being less wary and more willing to venture into open areas, providing better photographic access.

Variety of Behaviors

Because birds are often engaged in a wider range of activities during the golden hours, you have a greater chance of capturing diverse behaviors beyond just perching. This could include flight shots, feeding sequences, bathing, or even brief territorial disputes, adding narrative and interest to your images.

Bar-tailed Godwit in full sun and during the golden hour

Final Thoughts

The golden hour provides a natural color filter and a soft, directional light source that works in harmony to intensify, reveal, and beautifully contrast the colors of birds, leading to more visually stunning and emotionally resonant photographs. Being with birds early in the morning, in particular, can present a perfect storm for bird photographers: stunning light illuminating more active and engaged subjects, leading to richer, more dynamic, and visually appealing photographs. It’s a time when the avian world seems to come alive, offering a wealth of photographic possibilities. It is the best time to experiment and develop your photography skills.