Snail Kite - A Rare Event

[Jim Neiger]

Osceola County, FL - 1D4, 600mm, 1/2000, F5, ISO 400, manual exposure, hand held

After finaly receiving my new 600mm lens, I was able to get out for a few shots from my boat dock. This image shows a very rare event. Snail Kites are known to eat Apple Snails exclusively, but on occaision they also eat small turtles. I have seen and phoptographed them with turtles many times. Twice I have seen them eat Crayfish, but this is the only time I have captured it in a photo.

[Randy Stout]

JIm:

Always fun to capture something unique. Interesting under wing lighting, what was the sun angle like?

Nicely exposed. I might clone stamp the specular reflections in front of the bird, to soften them a bit further.


Enjoy the 600!

cheers

Randy

[Jim Neiger]

Randy,

It was late morning and the light was quite harsh, but I did get some light reflecting off the water.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jim, seems like the snail kite eats better than I do. The light has fallen on the head and body nicely, and a great view of the beak. I agree with Randy, blending in the specular highlights wont harm the image.

[Randy Stout]

Randy,

It was late morning and the light was quite harsh, but I did get some light reflecting off the water.

I thought you were getting some fill light, which helped here a lot. I love to shoot in the winter to get fill off the snow.

Cheers

Randy

[Greg Basco]

Great capture, Jim, and I absolutely love the BG!

Cheers,
Greg

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Jim, excellent capture. eye had come out very well. As Randy mentioned, underwing details are indeed awesome in this situation. excellent DOF coverage as well. Thanks for sharing.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very fine light. I like your composition here and natural history.

[Petros Petrou]

Great capture. Very nice underwing details. I realy like these talons!

[arash_hazeghi]

great shot, you did well despite the tough light