The shot was taken on 5 Nov 2014, about two weeks after hatching. The nest hole is about 6 m AGL facing west. Enough sunlight penetrates directly and indirectly in late afternoon for the AF to work. The camera is about 3.5 m AGL on a high trestle to get a better view inside the hole.
Canon 5DIII + 600 mm F/4L II + 1.4x III extender, 600EX-RT flash with Better Beamer, rice bag camera support on a high trestle.
Manual, spot metering, spot AF, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO 200, fill flash.
Processed with DPP4 and PS Elements. Removed flash highlight and darkened pupil using burn tool.
Thanks for looking, critical feedback welcome.
Ian
Nice one Ian
I tried imitating one of these in a zoo a few years back to get it to look at the camera. Quite a few people looked at me a bit strangely !!
I.m a bit confused about the beak area.
Is it eating something ? Not being critical- just cant work it out !!
Cheers
John
Hi John,
You are fortunate to live in such a tolerant community, in some parts of the world, including here, you could be locked up for trying to imitate the kookaburra call in public! The bill is slightly open as even when young, these guys have a lot to say. It takes quite a while before the birds learn the proper call and the early attempts are hilarious.
We have two surviving chicks in the nest and I record their progress every two days. At the moment they are nearly ready to go, doing wing stretches in the hole, lots of vocalization and very quarrelsome. They seem impatient to get away from the smelly black hole - can't say I blame them. I am hoping to catch one or both as they get more adventurous and start coming out of the hole.
Laughing Kookaburra chick in nest hole
Reply With Quote
