The life cycle of a termite includes a larval stage spent in underground colonies, from which the termites emerge as alates, or winged termites. Driving through a grassy area bordering a wetland in Botswana, we came across a feeding frenzy of Southern Carmine Bee-eaters and other bird species, flying around a swarm of emerging alates. Their speed and seemingly haphazard flight made it very difficult to lock on AF. But after watching for a while, a pattern emerged. At least some of them would fly over the termite hole, then make a broad circle and come back around in the same direction. This made it easier to predict, and with many failed attempts, to occasionally lock on as the bird made its final turn toward the termites. This time I got lucky.
D500, Sigma 150-600 @ 340mm; ISO 1250, 1/3200s @ f/7.1 manual. HH.







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The Nikon Grp AF kicks some a** when it comes to shots like this one. It wouldn't surprise me if even the D500 could nailed a bunch of these frames.

My only question is the ornagy color on the wings. It should be more red I believe? Perhaps the sun angle gave the wings that color?
