“Baiting” – A Matter of Definition and Ethics
Baiting just may be the most hotly debated topic in the bird photography community. Part of that debate revolves around the fact that not all nature photographers agree on a precise definition for the term. I’ve followed and participated in discussions of this “hot topic” in nature photography discussion forums for years now and it seems that the most mainstream definition, the one that the vast majority of avian photographers subscribe to, is a version of this: baiting – using food or other items or methods to artificially lure birds in close to the photograpaher. This would include using recorded bird calls, “setups”, back yard bird feeders, stuffed raptors (many birds come in to “mob” raptors) and a variety of other ingenious methods used by some well known “nature” photographers. One of the most controversial forms of baiting is using live bait (often pet store mice) to bring in raptors – owls in particular. This practice can have many negative efffects on the birds – from making them dependent on an artifical food source to spreading disease to causing birds to be hit by cars – not to mention the ethical dilemma of “nature” photographers photographing birds in unnatural situations. To bait or not to bait is an ethical decision that virtually every bird photographer must make. For me that decision was easy – I do not bait my intended subjects. I do sometimes photograph birds at my back yard feeder simply for the practice but I don’t post those images on online forums, include them on my website…