Another image from my recent trip to Giant's Castle. The background is the distant, grass covered mountain slopes of the Drakensberg Mountians. These birds are endangered in South Africa, with only one viable population centred around the Drakensberg and Maloti Mountains in neighbouring Lesotho. Being a specialised bone feeder and scavenger, it does not thrive where modern animal husbandry is practised.
Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Date/Time: 2008:05:08 11:11:19
Shutter speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: 7.1
Exposure mode: Av
Exposure compensation: +1/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 640
Focal length: 500mm
Looks like a beautiful bird! Really like your image of him. I'm always so saddened to hear of a specie's decline.....are there any efforts at all to preserve it??
Very productive trip Chris!. The bearded vulture in Spain faces the same problems that you are talking about. Fortunately, the conservation efforts and the measures taken to stop the decline of this birds are producing some hopefull results. We have several populations in the mountains range of the north but in the south, were I live, the species become extinct late in the 70s early 80s. The bird is being reintroduced in the south and several decades later we have some youngs flying free again. Regarding your image, the light is a bit hard to my taste but the OOF BG is very nice and compliments very well the bird plumage, terrific sharpness and a nice pose. The head turn is a nice bonus. Well done.
Bearded Vulture
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