Pileated Woodpecker in Flight

[Doug Brown]

Woodpecker flight is difficult to capture because of the scalloped flight pattern, the small size, and the speed of the bird, even against a sky BG. This is one of my early 5D Mark III flight frames, and I was very pleased with the AF performance (I still am!). I posted a wings-up frame of this bird earlier this year, but I like the wings-down version better.



Canon 5D Mark III, 500mm + 1.4x III, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO 800, manual exposure, hand held

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Wow, the focus look spot on. The flight pose with wing down make this even more like a rocket blasting by. Very good exposure and details too.

[Bill Dix]

Very tough birds to capture in flight. I remember being impressed by your earlier one, and this is equally impressive. Great angle and sharp focus.

[Sachin Saraf]

Amazing image...even the HA is perfect.

[Sarah Jessup]

I've stalked these birds for years and never even come close to a decent flight shot.
This is very nice - great angle and perfectly lit.

[Morkel Erasmus]

you nailed this Doug.
lovely exposure of blacks and reds, great pose, tack sharp

[Marina Scarr]

Well done on a very difficult bird to photograph in flight. They might be the largest woodpecker in the US but their flight pattern makes it difficult to track. I like the HA and the comp.

[arash_hazeghi]

I remember this one, it's a really cool shot and these are tough to get!

[Richard Unsworth]

Tough indeed, well done maestro
no flight shots of these in my files though I was nearly hit in the face by one not so long agolol

[gail bisson]

Excellent flight shot.
Head is tack sharp. Lovely wings down position as well.
Gail

[Maya Raut]

Great capture Doug. Love the head and wing position.

- Maya

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Doug, the flight posture really shows off the impression of speed. Well exposed, tack sharp, and sometimes a sky BG has to work.

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

Excellent full down pose of the male, I like the comp of him rocketing upward. I have them in my backyard, but very difficult to get flight images through all the trees.

I don't know if it is possible to tease anymore detail out of the whites on the near wing?

Very well captured.

Cheers

Randy

[Robert Holguin]

Stunning image. Great flight shot, exposed well and excellent details.
Very well done.

[Doug Brown]

I should mention that this was taken on a trip with my good buddy Jim Neiger, who always seems to know where the action is.

[Doug Brown]

I remember this one, it's a really cool shot and these are tough to get!

Thanks Arash. Although we saw Pileated Woodpeckers on our trip last year, this frame was taken a couple of months ago.

[Arthur Morris]

Outstanding as above. Was this with Jim Neiger? Was audio used?

[Doug Brown]

Outstanding as above. Was this with Jim Neiger? Was audio used?

Yes to both of your questions Artie.

[Doug Brown]

I don't know if it is possible to tease anymore detail out of the whites on the near wing?

Hi Randy. Thanks for your comments. I don't believe there's any detail to be teased out of the whites. I've never seen any detail in the white areas of a Pileated Woodpecker's wings. Here's some feather detail from another flight shot; straight out of the camera with no exposure adjustment whatsoever. Even though it's not tack sharp, there's not much detail in the black feathers either. What are your thoughts? I wonder if we can get John Chardine to weigh in on the matter?

[Doug Brown]

Here's my histogram from the frame.

[Ofer Levy]

Looks great!

[Jamie Douglas]

Well this will certainly silence anyone who mocks the AF performance of the 5D Mark III. Nice one Doug.

Jamie

[Tom Rambaut]

Like the pose a lot. The wing down and full stretch look. Great looking head crest these bird have!

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent flight shot.Love it.Just perfect at every pixel.

Regards,
Satish.

[John Chardine]

Hi all- I love the image for all the reasons given above. I am not quite sure which wing Randy means- the "rear" wing could be the one in the BG or the one that's more towards the tail. Both wings are a little blurred probably due to motion. The only detail that would be there in the wing feathers would be the fine structure of the barbs coming out from the quill or rachis, and the barbules and hooklets coming out of the barbules. This is very fine structure and I don't think it is resolvable in this image. I don't think there's anything special about Pileated feathers.

[Randy Stout]

John:

I said "near" wing in my original post. As you say, such fine detail, just may not be resolvable at that distance, with motion, atmosphere, etc!

Thanks for the anatomy information!

Cheers

Randy

[John Chardine]

Sorry Randy. I saw "near" and read "rear"!

[MohsenVahedipour]

Excellent capture & exposure. Congrats for this shot.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!