Discover Versatile Portable Bird Blinds for Every Nature Photographer

^{Note: This tip comes from Audubon’s article - Want to Shoot Intimate Bird Portraits? Try a Portable Blind}

Every bird photographer knows patience and preparation are vital to getting great shots. But sometimes, that just isn’t enough.

Maybe, after weeks of searching, you’ve found a Belted Kingfisher’s perch—yet no matter how carefully you approach, the skittish bird catches sight of you and flees.

The solution is to go undercover with the help of a portable blind.

Portable blinds conceal you and your gear, allowing you to get closer to your bird subjects without spooking them.

In this quick tip, I will share some bird blind options.

Type of blind: Ghillie Suit - Shaggy blanket or set of jacket and pants

Best for: Blending into tall grasses along a river, or a tree in a forest. 

Pros: Provides maximum mobility, plus is light and breathable.

Cons: May snag on vegetation

Type: Body Blind – A drape with dedicated camera opening

Best for: Settling in at one spot for the day. For instance, you find evidence that birds are using a particular tree. Get to the site early, find a good place for your chair, and then disappear under the drape.

Pros: Entirely hides camera gear, chair, and tripod, concealing hand movements that might tip off birds to your presence.

Cons: A little more cumbersome than a ghillie suit, and on hot days, it might be uncomfortably warm because air doesn’t circulate beneath the drape.

Type: Small popup tent

Best for: Leaving set up at one spot to return again and again. You want to set it up a few days, or even a week or more before you inhabit it so that the animals get used to it as part of the landscape. Then enter the blind before dawn to ensure you remain undetected.

Pros: Completely hides the photographer and all gear. These are the roomiest blinds, some large enough to fit two people.

Cons: Offers the least mobility, and as a larger, more noticeable structure, it might require more planning and time to deploy in the field.

Type: Floating blind is a buoyant platform covered with cloth

Best for: Shooting in lakes, ponds, and marshes (ideally with even bottoms and without a lot of deep spots or currents).

“The floating blind also allows us to get water-level shots that create very pleasing and intimate portraits,” says one photographer, who regularly takes his two floating blinds into the expansive cattail marshes near his home.

Pros: Ability to approach water birds without spooking them, as often happens in a canoe or kayak.

Cons: The cons are that the few floating blinds on the market are quite pricey, so many photographers opt to build their own, which can take days or weeks.

Taking pricey equipment onto the water is always risky, and moving the structure around can take time and effort.

Want more? If you want to learn more about bird photography, and capture beautiful shots of your own, we recommend downloading and printing out Photzy’s 10 Bird Photography Cheat Sheets (Special bonus available now!)