As anyone who has been on safari to Africa with me knows, I’m forever calling out “watch the tail” when we’re photographing a leopard, lion, or other long-tailed mammal. Far too often otherwise excellent mammal photographs are ruined when shooters inadvertently focus too closely on the face of an animal and chop off the tail.

With birds, there is plenty of attention paid to wings and feet, but tails can be equally important. As an example, I’ve included two consecutive images of a boat-tailed grackle from our recent Rio Grande Valley Photo safari that illustrate how much difference a tiny change in tail position can make to a photograph. In the first image a bit  of the iconic “boat-tail” is cut off behind the rock, taking a chunk out of the profile of the bird. In the second, the entire tail is visible. Admittedly the head angle is also dramatically different, but even without that change the image with the full profile is much stronger:

Just like with mammals, it is not always essential (or possible) to get the tail in the image, with close-ups of course, but also with poses that include perches or other natural elements. In that case, showing enough of the tail to get a sense of its shape and character is a great second best. The below photo of a Painted Bunting from the same trip illustrates how well this can work: