Bateleur

[Dorian Anderson]

This striking bird, a snake eagle relative, ranges throughout sub-saharan Africa. The white in the secondaries indicates this is a female; the male has all black upperwings.

I am aware the overhead perch is not great, but I figured I'd share this image because it's such a cool bird. My bar for international shots is admittedly lower since I'm never sure
when I'm gonna have another opportunity.

Closed down to f/8 to keep the entire subject in focus.

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS R5
1/400 at f/8, ISO 1600
Processed in LR CC and Topaz

[Colin Driscoll]

Despite the slightly upward view this has turned out well, great feather detail and soft light, good stare.

[Paul Burdett]

A striking bird indeed Dorian. Love the colours and detail here, and works so well against the white BG.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Dorian, love the stare, that could only have gotten better if the bird had turned it's head a little more to the viewers right. Nice colors, wonderful feather detail, the bird really shows nicely against the white background. Thank you for sharing.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Dorian, great detail, but the white backdrop is not ideal and I'm missing the eye contact here. Agree that the shooting angle is steep, but I would rather have this in the bag than not. The Martial eagle is what you really want to bag.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Dorian ... i do love this species , so I am happy to see a photo.
The angle is steep and maybe not ideal ...but the plain white sky is bothering me more ....
The eagle itself looks good , is a bit too cool for my taste and more could be extracted from the plumage .

My RP is covering my suggestion

TFS Andreas

[Arthur Morris]

I love the image and feel that Andreas' repost improves it. I love the clean perch and the white sky, and the not-that-steep angle does not bother me at all. Note that even in white sky conditions that the light is directional -- the right side of the bird's face (to our left), is somewhat in shadow0.

with love, artie

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like it, seems very natural, I wasn't fortunate enough to get so close when I was there, I think Andreas' repost is am improvement.