Originally posted by boriscleto “If your photos aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough” – Robert Capa
In birding, if you can't invest the time to get close, do what the birders call "cheating". During the mating season birds will almost always respond to a recording of their calls.
Do not get me wrong, this technique will work, but but this is a very bad advice from an ethical point of view.
During the breeding season, birds have other stuff to do than to search for an imaginary opponent, feed their young for example. Many species will revisit the place several times even after you've gone. Even before breeding, the presence of competition can actually affect the territory and nest site selection. Additionally, this practice is illegal for protected species in majority of countries.
That being said, in scientific studies, call replay until the first response is widely used as a technique when searching for breeding territories, but this usually does not get the birds agitated enough for them to stay for a photo shoot.
If you like taking pictures of birds, do it in a responsible way. Please get to know them better and learn to hide well, do not abuse their territoriality, they are only defending the future of their offspring.
Best regards,
Marko