STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Some would say Elite Ziegelman is on the hunt. She’s shooting, but not to kill.

“It’s a huge challenge but I always love challenges. That’s why I think I like the birds,” Ziegelman said.

Birds are giving this Staten Island professional photographer new inspiration during the pandemic. She spent years documenting real estate and nature. Last year, she published “To Staten Island With Love,” a compilation of photographs from around the borough.

Now, on daily walks, she looks and listens for signs for elusive avian species.

“It’s not that you just want to get the bird, you want to get a beautiful picture of a bird, like a portrait of a bird,” Ziegelman said.  

She walks up to seven or eight miles in a day, carrying her camera with a seven-pound lens attached.

“The type of bird that we’re looking for, we call a 'lifer,' it’s a bird you’ve never got. We say, ‘Oh, that’s a lifer. That’s a great shot.’ People will go, ‘Oh, where did you get that? You’re so lucky,’” she explained.

The solitary walks are peaceful but never boring. And Ziegelman says she never knows what she’ll see, like the thrill of watching an osprey scoop a fish right out of the water.

For Ziegelman, there’s a comfort in knowing she’s capturing this beauty in the birds and nature and is able to bring that to other people who can’t have a front row seat like she does.

“People are so depressed these days, they really are, so I give them the beauty that’s outside. Don’t think about anything else, think about the beauty, step outside, take a walk, check it out, look at what’s around you,” she said.

There is no shortage in the beauty waiting to be documented. With more than 560 photographs taken on a single day, there is still a mockingbird that emerges, begging for its own portrait. Zeigelman is only happy to oblige.