Bearded Vulture

[Chris van Rooyen]

Another image from my recent trip to Giant's Castle. The background is the distant, grass covered mountain slopes of the Drakensberg Mountians. These birds are endangered in South Africa, with only one viable population centred around the Drakensberg and Maloti Mountains in neighbouring Lesotho. Being a specialised bone feeder and scavenger, it does not thrive where modern animal husbandry is practised.

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Date/Time: 2008:05:08 11:11:19
Shutter speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: 7.1
Exposure mode: Av
Exposure compensation: +1/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 640
Focal length: 500mm

[Gus Cobos]

Hey Chris,
I like this capture, nice wing tips, details on your bird and head turn. great job...:D

[Valerio Tarone]

The same as over. Greetings from Italy.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The head position makes this one for me. Great details and BG, too.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful timing and pose in this image. Like it a lot Chris !!

[Stephen Earle]

Great bg here Chris. Love the head angle. Top photograph.

[Anita Rakestraw]

Looks like a beautiful bird! Really like your image of him. I'm always so saddened to hear of a specie's decline.....are there any efforts at all to preserve it??

[Juan Aragonés]

Very productive trip Chris!. The bearded vulture in Spain faces the same problems that you are talking about. Fortunately, the conservation efforts and the measures taken to stop the decline of this birds are producing some hopefull results. We have several populations in the mountains range of the north but in the south, were I live, the species become extinct late in the 70s early 80s. The bird is being reintroduced in the south and several decades later we have some youngs flying free again. Regarding your image, the light is a bit hard to my taste but the OOF BG is very nice and compliments very well the bird plumage, terrific sharpness and a nice pose. The head turn is a nice bonus. Well done.

[Loukie Viljoen]

Great image Chris, looking forward to our trip in June, Loukie& Julie

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Fantastic bg,eye contact and head position,nice work Chris