Pale Chanting Goshawk

[Gabriela Plesea]

Nikon D3S
Nikon 500mm/F4
ISO 400
F7.1
1/2000s

Hello everyone,

Would like to share an image of a Pale Chanting Goshawk, taken this February in the Kalahari Transfrontier Park. This was shot at about 8 am and the sweet light was long gone, yet an interesting sighting as we watched this Goshawk foraging on the ground and feeding on flying ants - a welcome source of protein and probably tasty as well! These birds are normally shy and take off easily when cars approach, in this instance we stopped quite far from him and as he wondered around he eventually forgot about us. He came closer and closer and I managed to capture some fun shots - this is one of them, and it reminds me of one of Mr. Kaluski's owl images posted some time ago. I wanted to show you what the Kalahari looked like after rain, flowers and all, so I cropped very little even though I was tempted to get closer to my subject.

Critique and comments of any nature are much appreciated, thank you.

Kind regards,

[Randy Stout]

Gabriela:

That is one intense looking bird. The foot up pose, the beak shadow which makes the beak look much more substantial, the slight shadowing of the eyes, all add to his 'attitude'

I certainly could see a tight vertical version as well, but your current comp. tells more of the story about the environment.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers

Randy

[Sidharth Kodikal]

A very unique and engaging raptor image, Gabriela. The head on stare and the pose with the powerful talon showing is excellent. I like the overall setting and the low angle - which gives this image quite a unique touch. Very well processed too. He does look quite intimidating.

[Randall Farhy]

Gabriela-the look of that bird says it's on a mission. I hope it wasn't mistaking your lens for prey. Nice capture!

[keith mitchell]

Gabriela it's got that I'm coming to get you look, certainly intimidating ,the flowers and the setting all add up to making a cracking image for you.

Keith.

[gail bisson]

This is very nice.
I like the intent, perfectly symmetrical stare and the feet.
I think that I would go vertical with this one. You could still include the flowers and retain the environmental feel.
Well done,
Gail

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image of handsome bird. I like the walking pose, nice stare, beautiful vegetation with flowers and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Love this image, Gabriela. It immediately made me smile for his intense look and advancing raised foot, gives the appearance of anger. Almost a caricature of himself. Beautiful hawk and like that you included the flowers. IQ and handling of harsh light well done.



Geoffrey

[Rob Melone]

Excellent bird, composition and capture Gabriela! What an expression and love the head-on angle where the dof is perfect. And the flowers do a nice job to soften that determined look.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello everyone!

Thank you so much for your kind comments, I am extremely grateful you took the time to view this image. Geoffrey, I smiled from ear to ear reading your comment "...almost a caricature of himself", I had something similar in mind when I found this among my recent Kalahari folders! I do have other shots of this Goshawk, in some the eyes are much more visible but the pose is not as interesting. Initially I cropped quite tight but I am busy to submit this image to a local Birding Magazine and there is a chance they might use it for the cover of the next issue, therefore I went back to full frame (to include the flowers, since the story I am sending with the image tells about the recent rain this semi-desert has had and how the landscape was affected).

Kind regards,

[Holger Leyrer]

Wow, this is a great image. My first thought was the bird is running out of my monitor.
I like the raised feet and the stare. The habitat around the bird, too. Super!