Least Bittern, male with fish

[Melvin Grey]

This is an elusive bird I particularly wanted to photograph and I spent three days at the Wakodahatchee Wetlands getting the biggest collection of 'bits' of Least Bittern you can imagine. Finally, literally a few hours before I had to leave Florida to fly back to the UK, this male came out from the reeds into full view and started stalking fish between the lilly pads. The photographs were taken lying flat on the board-walk with people stepping over me. Perseverence paid off!

Camera Canon 1D Mk11, Lens 100-400 IS at 285mm
Exp 1/160 @ f5.6 Iso equiv. 400

[Dave Phillips]

nice to fly home with "the shot"....and a nice one it is.
Looks good all around to me. Seeing the fish's eye is a plus for sure

[Daniel Cadieux]

Your patience paid off! You were as low as you could go on that boardwalk, therefore this angle was the best you could get. Because of the prey's small size and mostly hidden position you are fortunate to have the eye showing to give us an idea of what it is :-)

[Jody Melanson]

Nice behavior image. I like the eye contact from the prey. The Lily flower bud in the lower right is very distracting and keeps drawing my eye away from the Bittern.