Killdeer "Finally"

[David Salem]

I have been trying to get a good flight frame of a Killdeer for years to no avail. They are pretty darn fast and shifty as they fly by with their distinctive distress call, so locking on to one for any length of time is a feat. I saw a situation about month ago where a few birds were flying around a pond in the same pattern so I walked to the bank of the pond with the sun at my back and tried to catch them. This is one of the better frames from that evening and my best one to date.
Also, not until I processed this did I notice the little pointed feather at he end of the tail. This appears to be only on older dominant males so I was tickled to have found it on this frame. Hope you like it.

1DX---840mm---f6.3---ss 1/4000th---ISO800---HH@ 4:05 pm---40% crop


Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.


David

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image. Spectacular flight pose with very nice HA, beautiful colors and composition.


Regards,
Satish.

[Grace Scalzo]

Such a difficult flight shot....well done, and the vertical treatment is superb. Maybe see if you can extract a bit more detail on the back and tail?

[Stu Bowie]

Hi David, congrats on getting your lifer her, and you certainly captured a great flight pose. Love the soft late light, sharp, and I like how the colours pop against the water BG.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Grace, I will look at it in a bit. Thanks.

[Richard Flack]

Wow David, that rocks. Well done. Love the wing position, cracker head angle and perspective this gives.

[David Salem]

Added a little more sharpening to the tail and a bit of detail extractor. I think it looks a bit better. Thanks

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi David, killer BIF with killer BG. Your usual good techs. Yes, the RP is even better. Congrats.

Loi

[Bill Dix]

Terrific flight shot of a very difficult bird. Nice bg and perfect turn of the head. RP improves it.

[Joseph Przybyla]

First, congratulations. Nice image of this little rocket.

[gail bisson]

Love it! no nits from me. The head turn your way is icing on the cake! Never knew about the little tail feather. I done learn-ed something today!
Gail

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful flight frame of a challenging species Dave!

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the HA, BG, IQ and vertical composition. The repost improved an already great image.

[WillieHall]

nice repost of an already quailty image. Appreciate the backstory, always learning nice details of birds here that we could not see without detailed photos.

[Amol Khedgikar]

I know how difficult this shot is . Well done on all counts.. RP is better

[David Salem]

Thanks again everyone. I appreciate it.

[Jim Neiger]

Beatiful image and a difficult one to capture. Well done! I didn't know about the adult males having the tail feather. Made me go look at all my topside Killdeer shots to see if any had the tail feather. Couldn't find any that had it. BFAM

[Sidharth Kodikal]

You're a machine! Man, not an easy shot by any stretch. Love it!