Regurgitating Pellet

[Stu Bowie]

Although it happens all the time, its not often we get to witness a Kingfisher regurgitating a pellet of unprocessed food. I was busy taking a normal perching shot of this male, when he opened his beak. I fired a burst and was lucky to capture the moment. This was taken early yesterday morning in the Pilanesberg National park. Almost FF, converted to vertical.

Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 500mm F/4 ( borrowed again )
1/1600
F/7.1
ISO 640

Manual exposure

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely timing on this one,
The bird is sharp with great exposure i love the bg its nice, the perch is also great .

[Nick Palmieri]

Nice capture. Great behavior. The perch and BG look good and the techs look good. TFS.

[Jason Bugay Reyes]

Wow !

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

Great timing on this frame, not something easily captured.

Nice that the background colors match the pellet!

Interesting perch without being dominant.

Someone is sure to comment on the sheen/reflection on the upper mandible (I guess I just did ). Small amounts never bother me, but I might do a bit of tinkering on this one to see if you like it better with a blacker mandible.

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Crosswell]

Great behaviour image Stuart! I like the perch, IQ, timing and BG.

[Satish Ranadive]

Stuart Sir:
This is absolutely superb image with absolutely superb IQ.Wonderful lights,great details and great action.
Love every thing in the frame.

Regards,
Satish.

[Stu Bowie]

Someone is sure to comment on the sheen/reflection on the upper mandible (I guess I just did ). Small amounts never bother me, but I might do a bit of tinkering on this one to see if you like it better with a blacker mandible.

Cheers

Randy

Thanks Randy. I always prefer a clean blacker beak too, and do often tinker with small bits of sheen. In this, I thought it would be quite some work to achieve a natural looking upper mandible. I could always give it a try.

Thank you everyone else for the feedback and comments.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

stu, remarkable timing with the pellet. The pose and BG are gorgeous.

[gail bisson]

Perfect timing! Great IQ Stuart. The 1DMKIV is doing great in your hands.
I don't think I would frame this one for the dining room though!!
Gail

[Jonathan Ashton]

Stu I think I have only ever seen an image of KF with the bolus once before, this is outstanding, amazing details in the plumage too. Hey the perch isn't bad either!!
Is it just super duper detail or dare I even suggest the junction of sharpening/NR artefact, but I noticed the very fine saw toothed edge to the bill it, may well be me showing my ignorance!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Hi Stu, excellent IQ, exposure and timed perfectly. Bg is fantastic and I like your tight crop.
At this location is setting up a perch a choice?

[Robert vanMierop]

Allow me to hurl compliments your way. Great exp. and background. Activity...flying, fighting, feeding, etc. is such a plus...but regurgitating??? Now that's a first! But it's a seriously a nice image.

[Stu Bowie]

At this location is setting up a perch a choice?

Thanks Sid. Not really. The hide is built over a dam, ( fairly high up from the water ) and it is in pure wildlife country. The water is full of crocs and hippos, and outside of the carpark which is fenced, wandering too far out the gate could get you taken by any of the big 5.

Thanks everyone else for your comments and feedback.

[Frank Schauf]

Great timing, great action.

[christopher galeski]

good action shot,magic BG,good perch ,IQ is great.

[Jon Rista]

Wow! Perfect moment! Congrats!