Ruslan Balagansky in ABA Birding magazine
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2026 10:46 pm
Our old buddy with the cover photo!
Every photo tells a story, and Ruslan Balagansky’s image of a Swinhoe’s White-eye on the cover of the May 2026 issue of Birding is no exception.
In this issue’s “About the Cover” feature, Ruslan reflects on his birding journey alongside his wife, Beverly, and how birding rekindled a connection to nature first nurtured by his mother during his childhood in Siberia. The cover image itself is both a technical achievement and a deeply personal moment—capturing a difficult subject to photograph, and a story of new places, adaptation, and the ways birding can help us better understand the world and ourselves.
You can explore Ruslan’s story alongside Rajan Rao’s feature on Swinhoe’s White-eyes and more in the May issue of Birding.