Back in black

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Greater Sooty Owl (Tyto tenebricosa tenebricosa) photographed near my home in western Sydney.
These are one of the species that aren't often seen, but their bomb-like screams can be heard on nightfall in the rain forests of temperate SE Australia. I have been trying to photograph this type of cave roost for nearly seven years at this stage.
I was stoked this day having visited this same roost about a dozen times over a 12-month period collecting a lot of pellets for analysis, but only once have I found his lordship roosting here.
One of my fave Aussie birds. Small crop for composition (from top and right)

Canon EOS 5DMkII
500/4L IS USM + 1.4x
Manual mode
ISO400, f/16, 1/60th
580EXII with beamer set to zero
Tripod and Wimberley Gimbal

[Colin Driscoll]

Awesome Ákos, beautiful rock work and splendid bird. I love their Budgie-like chatter and of course that scream. Nice work.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

You can hear some recordings on my webpage here.

There is the Sooty Owl, Maroota that is the cricket-buzz kind of aggressive call, then the others were recorded by my friend who is a mad birder from Thunder Bay, Ontario. He had some decent parabola mike and equipment to record at a nest site, which I discovered in 2011.

[Lorant Voros]

You have always impressed my with your owl images...and you still do. Fantastic in all aspects. Beautiful bird, great settings and perfect tecs. Well done, Ákos.

[Daniel Cadieux]

How cool...it looks like a dark Barn Owl! Congrats on the find, and well done photographing it. The talons at the edge of the perch are really neat. Ideally the paler boulder at left edge would not be there but understandably unavoidable- you could maybe just darken it a tad.

[Norm Dulak]

Beautiful Akos. Stunning bird, composition and background.

[keith mitchell]

Akos this will do very nicely for me without any alterations, never seen an Owl in a setting like this, smashing piece of work.

Keith.

[gail bisson]

Love this. Thanks for the link as well.
Very unusual setting and owl. I have never heard of this owl before .
Good details on the blacks. Love those talons and the eye level view.
I would be tempted to crop in a little bit more on LHS to crop out the OOF rock.
excellent!
gail

[adrian dancy]

I think you are entitled to do a cart wheel...I love the bird and the setting...excellent.

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Akos! I like the setting, exposure, flash work, IQ and details.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Really nice-looking owl!
Great flash work buddy!
if mine I would give more room all around the bird as it looks a tad tight especially on top.

[Marina Scarr]

Your patience and persistence definitely paid off here. What a mighty fine looking owl and considering you obviously had to use flash, I think it turned out rather well. I would take a tad off of the bottom up to the bottom of the rock on the left.