Mississipi kite adult and juvie

40D. 400 f5.6L. iso 400. f/6.3. 1/1600.

I got this nice opportunity to shoot Mississipi kite family. The food exchange happens very fast. Juvies perch and scream. Mom comes in without much notice( owing to tall trees) with food( dragonflies and cicadas mostly) in mouth. She lands and there is a lot of flapping of wings, food gets exchanged and she is out of the frame in less than a second. So getting clean shots without wings intersecting and eyes/prey visible is a matter of chance. I shot 4-5 exchanges and ended up with a handful of keepers. In this one, she is leaving after the exhange.

Shot from top of my car.

Nice interaction...which is the mom? Never shot this bird before.

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Originally Posted by Troy Lim

Nice interaction...which is the mom? Never shot this bird before.

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One on top.

Great interaction shot. Nice to get the wings fully extended and the mom facing you. I suppose it never happens that both birds are facing the same direction.

Kaustubh, I think you did a great job capturing this exchange. I do wish we could see more of the young one but I don't think that was possible. Nice extended wings on the adult and I think it's great you were on your car. Just curious HH or Tripod on the car:)

I have some with both facing, some both sideways etc :-) But some of those are when I was not on the car...some dont have nice wing positions. I went their twice but could not get a "perfect" shot. For those interested, my website has a few more shots in the 'whats new' tab. Last I heard, the juvies have started practising hunting on their own and are not returning to the perch on a regular basis.

Denise, these were hand held. I had to spend 10 minutes thumping the car top from inside to even out the dents :-) Tripod wouldnt have been a good idea.

:):)

Man, you sure had some nice opportunities. I'm with Denise in wishing to see more of the young one. I checked out your series on your website and for me the one with the most impact for the viewer is the one titled "The Food Exchange"...even if there are some minor distracting elements.

You gave me a good laugh with the roof repair bit!:D