Martial Eagle on kill

[Martin Dunn]

polemaetus bellicosus

Photographed in Ndutu area or Serengeti

Returning to camp just on sunset we spotted this Martial Eagle on the ground under some trees.
When he didn't fly away we realised he was feeding on a rabbit he had killed - and he wasn't about to abandon his meal.

This has been cropped by about 10% on the top and on both sides. to eliminate grasses.
I cloned out a long grass stem that was to the right of his head (as we look at it)
Adjusted colour to reduce a blue cast on bird's head and plumage

It is a bit noisy, but the light was fading fast.

Nikon D300s
Sigma 120-400mm lens @ 400mm
1/800
f5.6
ISO1600

Handheld
132596

[Satish Ranadive]

Martin,
Beautiful image in habitat. Very nice pose, HA and expression of Eagle you have captured. Would add space on the top and RHS,though there is grass.
Besides that BG needs good amount of noise reduction.
The image would also look better if you have posted at the 1200 x 900 limits.

Regards,
Satish.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent image in habitat. Love the stare.

[Melissa Groo]

That's quite a menacing glare he's giving you! Very cool view of this eagle at his feast. I would really like to see it bigger if you could post that. Looks like you might have a few hot spots on the leg and leading edge of wing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

That is a terrific opportunity you landed on here! The look on the eagle's face tells us it is not about to give up that meal for sure:S3: You did best you could with the light you had...lots of bright spots and the bird mostly in shade so blown highlights were almost unavoidable in order to properly expose the subject in-camera. Having said this, did you need to lighten parts of the image in post? Just seems to be a fair amount of noise in some darker spots.