World Trip Reports
eye to eye with...
I just came back from seeing the Black-throated Diver again, and this time it came closer than i would have expected. I was standing next to a tree and the bird just swam past me on a 7 ft distance!
That reminded me of other birds that i saw nearerby than expected:
My first Goldfinch at 3ft and once a Goldcrest at 3ft.
What bird(s) were you once closer to than expected? STORIES!!
I well remember being on the Scillies in 1983 and hoping that the flighty Upland Sandpiper (now Plover?) would settle down and allow prolongued viewing.
After a couple of days of scattered reports of fly-over sightings, the bird eventually settled in a field that was raised from the road.
Leaning on the wall that bordered the field, we watched it for about an hour at 30yds distance. It was a fabulous creature.
Over the next few days the bird became so tame that it would readily approach it's admirers and eventually started to take worms from them. I even saw it take a worm out of someone's mouth!!
I've got a photo of it (on slide unfortunately) with it so close, the tip of it's bill is touching my (standard) lens!
Is that the kind of thing you were looking for Erik? 
Chris
Some birds are far more confinding than others, and some simply get used to humans, so I guess many of us have been within inches of, for example, Mallards, Mute Swans, that kind of thing.
Here in the UK, I understand our Robins are "tamer" than their Mainland Europe counterparts, and just this previous weekend I have been eye to eye with a Robin at less than 5 feet.
With others though, it is less common, and also this weekend I was eye to eye with a Fieldfare at less than 6 feet, and I have had (a few years ago) a mutual "watch" with a Long-tailed tit at no more than arm's length (with a pair of Bullfinches in the same shrub).