Amorous King Penguins
After a satisfactory introduction, there is a period of head-flagging and antiphonal short calls followed by the 'advertisement walk'. The male leads the way to a quiet spot with a special gait and a pendulum motion of his head. This is when advanced courtship begins with high-pointing and head flagging, antiphonal duets of long calls and bowing toward each other. I found this pair on a pebble bank at the back of the beach party where they were going through their pre-copulatory moves. The image captures 'necking' behaviour where the male hooks his bill over the females neck during one of her bows. This is repeated a number of times with the female bowing lower and lower while the male gently presses her downward. When she is ready, the female slides to the ground and the male mounts her with difficulty, steadying himself occasionally by pinching her neck and pressing his flippers against her sides. This gorgeous couple allowed the voyeur to take many pictures but their modesty prevented them from 'going all the way' in front of the camera. The image is full frame with a little trimmed off the top and bottom.
Canon 5DIII + 300 mm f/2.8L II + 2x III extender, 600EX-RT, Gitzo 3532LS, Kirkphoto King Cobra gimbal.
Manual, f/13, 1/200 sec, ISO 250, 1/8 flash power.
Processed in DPP: crop, adjust brightness (+0.17), shad/h'lights, saturation, sharpen, RAW-TIFF. PS Elements: select birds, NR on background to reduce file size, remove a few grains of sand and flying insects, downsize and output sharpen, TIFF-JPEG.
Thanks for looking, critical feedback welcome.
Reply With Quote
