Sorry I didn't see your post earlier Craig.
Here's how I would choose:
1. If possible, a different bird each month. Means selecting no more than one each from your fairy-wren, lorikeet, galah, pelican and pardalote shots (as good as they are).
2. No introduced birds. No peacock.
3. As much diversity of types as possible: passerines and non-passerines, bush birds/water birds, etc.
4. Minimise human artifacts (including introduced plants) - this is just my bias; you might prefer the opposite, to connect with your home etc.
You have 48 candidates. Take out the peacocks, and that leaves 46. There's one or two I can't identify from the thumbnails, but this is the list as far as I can tell:
Multiples (with my pick of them):
- Rainbow lorikeet x 4 - 1077 (or 8184)
- Spotted pardalote x 12 - 9598 (good for spring)
- Superb fairy-wren x 6 - 3113
- Willy wagtail x 2 - 5553
- Australian Pelican x 3 - 3424
- Galah x 2 - 7572
- Singing honeyeater x 2 - can't see for sure; one might be Yellow-faced honeyeater. - 0617 (the other gives more context, but the crooked horizon is distracting)
One each of these (with my biases stated):
- Noisy miner? - Very cute, but the pots don't do it for me
- Crested pigeon - nice shot, but I don't like the fence
- Parrot in 3299 is not one I know - very nice shot
- Australian magpie - good profile, B&W works. If possible re-crop - if you have space where the bird is looking and less behind it works better
- Laughing Kookaburra - urban background doesn't do it for me
- Red-winged parrot? 8709 - hard to get, which compensates for the limited view in my mind; but others might not see it that way
- New Holland Honeyeater - I love NHHs, and this is very good
- Silver gull - good shot, but I would crop the bottom left a bit
- red-browed finch - personally I don't like the feeder in the shot, even though I have lots like this myself (not of the finches)
- Cuckoo? 0152 - good shot, nice bokeh
- Eastern rosella - like this one. I find it surprisingly hard to photograph them
- White-bellied sea-eagle? (0375) - very nice
- Masked lapwing - quite nice, they are very striking
- Emu - despite the fence, it has to go in. Coat of arms and all that.
- Crimson rosella - human structure
So that's 22 species. Only 8 passerines, so I would bias towards them - say 5 or 6. Only one raptor, so I would include it. Only one ratite, so the emu has to go in. If your donee are overseas, include at least 4 parrots.
So here are the ones I'd include:
Parrots:
- Rainbow lorikeet - 1077
- Galah - 7572
- Eastern rosella - 0279
- Parrot in 3299 Reserve selection: Red-winged parrot? 8709
Ratite:
- Emu 0375
Raptor:
- White-bellied sea-eagle? (0375)
Corvids/kingfishers:
- Australian magpie - 0619
Water birds:
- Australian Pelican - 3424. (Reserve selection: Silver gull 8652 or Masked lapwing 6132)
Passerines:
- Spotted pardalote - 9598
- Superb fairy-wren - 3113
- Willy wagtail - 5553
- Singing honeyeater - 0617
- New Holland Honeyeater - 7506 (Reserve selection: - Cuckoo? 0152)
Even if you don't share my biases, I hope the reasoning/classification will help.
I'm sure what _ccc says is right about people liking shots that aren't the ones you are proudest of. But, oh stuff it, it's your calendar. Choose the ones that express your own preferences. ;-)
Last edited by Des; 10-15-2017 at 09:56 PM.