Smooth-billed Ani In Flight

[Bob Pelkey]

There are very few flight images of Smooth-billed Ani at Google's "Images" pages for this species. I have not searched other flight images for SBAN that may be here at BPN.

I made a trip this morning 21 July 2015 with Tom Obrock to observe and photograph the ani that have been reported at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Boynton Beach, Florida for some time now.

With luck we saw the birds. With even more luck I got a flight shot of one of the two Smooth-billed Ani seen.

The image presented here is a 1 to 3 crop (what I use for slideshow images at my blog).

This is also the 257th species of bird I have photographed in Florida. My goal is all of them, of course. Only about an equal number to go!

In my research of this species I noted that the National Audubon Society website appears to be presenting an image of the Smooth-billed Ani where flash was used. I agree with them. Flash is sometimes helpful for bird photography.

Induro AT-413 tripod w/ WH-200 GTH II (the head is beginning to show significant saltwater fatigue).
Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	21-Jul-2015 09:21:13
Make	Canon
Model	Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	600 mm
Exposure Time	1/5000 sec
Aperture	f/5.6
ISO Equivalent	800
Exposure Bias	+2/3
White Balance	0
Metering Mode	matrix (5)
JPEG Quality	(8)
Exposure Program	aperture priority (3)
Focus Distance	25.7 m

[Ian Wilson]

Nice work Bob, congratulations on nailing this bird in flight. Larger image dimensions would be welcome so we can better appreciate the bird and the technical achievement. Regards, Ian.

[Daniel Cadieux]

congrats on the flight shot of this species Bob. The face and neck are beautifully sunlit, and you have yourself a really nice BG here. The blacks in the shadows have some colour noise in them...did you need to lighten them in post? I could see the Ani a little lower in the frame.

[Bob Pelkey]

Nice work Bob, congratulations on nailing this bird in flight. Larger image dimensions would be welcome so we can better appreciate the bird and the technical achievement. Regards, Ian.

Thank you, Ian. I will process a larger version in the future.

[Bob Pelkey]

congrats on the flight shot of this species Bob. The face and neck are beautifully sunlit, and you have yourself a really nice BG here. The blacks in the shadows have some colour noise in them...did you need to lighten them in post? I could see the Ani a little lower in the frame.

Thank you, Daniel. Yes, I did lighten the exceedingly dark shadow. I will be more conscious of color noise in the future. My placement of the ani in the frame was with thought of a critique I read here at BPN long ago where the "imaginary" down stroke of the wings would have been preferred in the frame.

[arash_hazeghi]

thanks for sharing the image of this rare bird with us, and sure it looks unique. I agree posting it larger has much higher impact. I wish that the sun was lower in the sky at the time of shooting, the shadows are a bit deep and I also see the banding/noise

TFS again