Eating on the fly

[Rick Moran]

A swallow tailed kite eating a lizard in flight.
Taking at ENP. D2X w 600/4 and 14x. f6.3@1/2000 sec. iso 320.
Thanks for looking, Rick

http://slopoki1.smugmug.com/photos/522099846_4vSxy-L.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Rick:

Excellent timing to capture this activity. The wing and tail spread are great.

The light angle and the black/white color of this bird made for a difficult exposure. You held the whites well, but the blacks are pretty blocked up. I tried to bring out some detail there, not much luck.

There is a funny looking blur at the tip of the tail feathers near us, which extends up into the wing. Didn't notice the wing bit until working on it at high mag. Hard to image there was something up there in the way, but def. a defect of some sort.

Thanks for posting this interesting behaviour.

Randy

[Juan Aragonés]

I totally agree with Randy´s comments. Very good timing!

[Doug Brown]

Great feeding behavior captured! Nice critique by Randy. I would run some additional sharpening on the bird and would crop a bit off the bottom of the frame. Looks like some cloning artifact on the tail feather. Some positive EC would have helped here.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find and behavior captured. Another vote for more sharpening and bringing out more details in the shadows.