White Tailed Kite Aerial Courtship Ritual

[Loi Nguyen]

We witnessed an incredible display of aerial courtship by a breeding pair of white tailed kites this morning. The male caught a prey - not sure what, but it has a tail and 4 legs - and emitted a cry, the female was behind and under him and locked her eyes on the prey and closed in fast. Then the male offered her the prey and the female turned upside down to grabbed it. Then the male released its grip and the female flew to the nest tree with the prize in her talons. The whole sequence took place in a second or two. I was on the ground pretty far away from the dance, but took the shots anyway. I had one second and, unlike Artie, did not think about exposure at all. I had just replaced my 2X with the 1.4X, so I had the AV set for f8 and ISO-800.

The image here was cropped close to 100%, so IQ is not good, but I thought it is still an interesting image and worth sharing.

Please let me know if you like it and any tips for shooting small white birds would be greatly appreciated.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/4000
f8
ISO-800
Handheld

The setting was for a 2X, fo F8 was the max. I metered off the sky and reduced exposure by 1/3 EV.

Thanks

Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

This is the famous WTK food exchange courtship that happens during mating, you were lucky to see it happen. As for the image it has some issues, harsh light and poor IQ with lots of noise are the main ones.

A 1DX file even at 100% does not look this bad, did you raise the exposure in post or applied too much sharpening? A properly exposed 1DX file does not have this much noise even at ISO 6400.

[Loi Nguyen]

This is the famous WTK food exchange courtship that happens during mating, you were lucky to see it happen. As for the image it has some issues, harsh light and poor IQ with lots of noise are the main ones.

A 1DX file even at 100% does not look this bad, did you raise the exposure in post or applied too much sharpening? A properly exposed 1DX file does not have this much noise even at ISO 6400.

Arash

I think the reason for too much noise is: 1) the underside of the wings was underexposed. Due to the harsh lighting, I had a settign 1/4000, f8, ISO 800 to avoid blowing the whites. Then it was a massive crop and then applied too much sharpening. Here is the original with the sharpening and NR set back to 0.

Thank you for looking into the noise issue for me.

Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

hopefully next time you will be closer and light will be nicer too. If you can find where the nesting tree is you will have better chances as the angle will be less steep.

[Mark Jones]

Thanks for sharing this shot Loi. Such amazing aerobic skills. Would be nice to see these birds in action.

[Marina Scarr]

Terrific action/behavior captured here, Loi, and thank you for sharing. Why can't the action happen a little closer and why can't the light always be perfect when action like this happens? Good for you for waiting around even though you didn't have the best light, for watching and learning their behavior and capturing this amazing exchange. Your persistence and patience will ultimately pay off.

[Uri First]

amazing capture of amazing birds

[Satish Ranadive]

Great action packed image.Love it.

Regards,
Satish.