Feeding Ostrich - Male

[Stu Bowie]

I took a drive around the nature reserve close to my house over the weekend, and came away with this Ostrich feeding off the plants, which is their natural diet. The Males have a black plumage, while the females are brown. Taken early morning as I drove in.

Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 300mm F/2.8
1/1000
F/6.3
ISO 400

Manual exposure

[Jonathan Ashton]

The thumbnail does not do justice to the image. The lighting looks perfect for the scene, the details in the dark and light plumage are all there, I really like this image it really does enable a good critical look at this amazing bird.

[Karl Egressy]

Great to see and take picture of one in the wild, Nicely done, Stu. (seen only in a Zoo)

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely image, Stu. What a powerful looking bird, strong legs and big feet. I would hate have one angry chasing me, death or serious injury would be certain. Thank you for sharing.

[Geoff Newhouse]

Cool bird to see in the wild. I love the pose, I wish for a better BG, maybe actually a higher angle with all green would have been better or lower with more of the horizon?? Not sure?

TFS
Geoff

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stu, nice to see your 'backyard', bet it takes some time to cut, however you get some great wildlife too by the look of things :bg3:.

Nice exposure and great detail in the blacks, well timed with the beak, well done.

TFS
Steve

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the feeding pose, curve of the neck and composition. Well done Stuart!

[William Dickson]

I love this one Stu. Fantastic feather detail and a lovely setting. Wished I could drive around and capture beautiful images like this :w3 Great work

Will

[Gerhard Weldhagen]

Rietvlei is looking nice and green! His shins are colouring up well, are there any young ones yet? Beautiful image of a difficult to frame subject!

[Stu Bowie]

Rietvlei is looking nice and green!

Thanks Gerhard. During Winter, they burn parts of Rietvlei, thus you can now see the the new grass coming up. I should have mentioned, this was full frame. There are quite a few Ostrich families in Rietvlei, but didnt see any really small chicks.