Red-billed Oxpecker

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Captured at the Mankwe hide in the Pilanesberg Nature Reserve.

1D MKIV
600mm f/4
f/7.1
ss 1/3200
ISO 800

[Stu Bowie]

Good timing for the take off Gerrie. Have the oxpeckers taken over from the Pied's:) I like the smooth BG.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Hey Gerrie, great to see you here:p You done very well getting this shot, unique as most of us don't have one. Excellent detail captured and love the BG TFS :cheers:

[Robert Amoruso]

Gerrie,

I can't imagine that this was an easy image to create. Clean, pleasing BG complements the beautiful bird. A bit more engagement of the head and eye (head angle) with the viewer would have been a nice extra.

[Herb Houghton]

I like this shot, very interesting bird. Great colors and sharpness, pleasing BG. I agree with a HA or flight turn towards the viewer to optimize this. Congrats.

[Dudley Watson]

Gerrie

Excellent detail and pose. Very well captured image

[Jeroen Wijnands]

Good capture. I've never seen this bird but.. aren't the reds very close to being blown? Or are they really that intense?

[Nancy Bell]

This is a great capture. Some photos really cause me to marvel over birds. Here is a plainish brown bird with both an outrageous red bill and red & yellow eye :)!

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Thank you for viewing & commenting everyone. It is much appreciated.

Jeroen, the reds are really very intense and is far from blown in this pic.

Nancy, the Oxpeckers almost went extinct due to the use of pesticides in the cattle farming environment in this country. The situation has thankfully changed and numbers are increasing, although the Yellow-billed variant is still scarce. They are normally seen on animals where they feed on ticks & lice. Observing them as they build a nest and getting them in flight is a fairly unique experience.:)