Brown Noddy - Coutship/bonding behavior

[gail bisson]

Taken on Lord Howe Island, NSW, Australia. This place was the highlight of the trip to OZ. Beautiful Tahiti-like Pacific Island with great birds and spectacular Ball's Pyramid (worlds largest sea stack) 23 kms away. Only 420 residents and maximum 700 tourists on the island +~ 300 support staff in the small hotels. There are very few cars to rent so most go around by bike which I did for 4 days. Not easy to bike with my camera gear! We were able to secure a rental car the last 2 days on the island which made things much easier. Only ~ 12 kms of paved road on this small island.
I was thrilled to capture this bonding behavior. Both male and female strut around with bills open and they walk and bow their heads to each other repeatedly. I was too close to capture both birds sharply so decide to just focus on one. They are such beautiful birds.
Canon 1 DX 600mm
ISO 1250 SS 1/800 F 6.3
Handheld
Crop to 75% FF. Nothing added or cloned.
Comments and critiques always learned from and appreciated with thanks,
Gail

[Colin Driscoll]

Stunning Gail, they are such lovely birds. LHI is wonderful and I was fortunate that my parents worked there for a few years quite sometime ago, so I could visit for free.

[John Mack]

That tongue is killer. Very neat looking bird. Like the low angle and that open mouth pose.

[Paul Burdett]

Another killer shot Gail. Great HA, pose and BG. Could the eye be lightened a little? (being picky here). Looks like I need to add LHI to my bucket list!
Cheers.

[David Roach]

That is one cool looking bird lucky to have you as the wedding photographer. Great pose, BG and details. TFS

[dankearl]

Awesome pose. I have no nits except maybe crop some off the top, since the bird
is looking down, I have no reason to look up...

[Arthur Morris]

aHard to do much better than this. Mazel tov on a great image. Was the bird on a beach or on a wall?

with love, artie

[gail bisson]

aHard to do much better than this. Mazel tov on a great image. Was the bird on a beach or on a wall?

with love, artie
He was on the beach. And yes, the beach really is that perfectly clean!

[annmpacheco]

Hi Gail, wonderful, Love you captured this behavior, it is striking. Also, the birds overall sharpness, clean beach and the milky BG all compliment each other in your image. Well done, a beauty

[Tim Foltz]

Gail, super nice love the light, angle and subject, the open mouth with the orange coloration is a big plus.

-Tim

[Daniel Cadieux]

One small detail that no one seemed to have picked up on is the tiny sand grains being kicked up, pretty neat. Sounds like a unique experience over there!