Cuckoo

[Rich Steel]

Hi

The cuckoo is a bird that I have wanted to photograph for a long time. I have often heard them in the spring but never actually seen one. In fact I believe many have never seen one as they are very elusive birds. A bird was being reported locally over a number of days and my friend Steve went to check it out earlier this week . As I was driving home I got a call from Steve saying that he had found the bird and managed to get a few photos after 4 hours trying but the light had not been great. So I headed straight home, grabbed the camera and went out to try and find it. I found it quickly and spent a whole hour with it at close quarters just as some late afternoon sun broke through. A great experience and interesting to watch its feeding technique on caterpillars. It was able to spot a green caterpillar in the dense marsh vegetation from about 30ft away and on capture would hit the caterpillar against the nearest object to remove some unplatable part before eating. It was a young bird which should have reallyalready been om it journey towards Africa and I hope my new 'friend' eventually makes it through the long voyage ahead. I also returned the following morning on the way to work when this photograph was taken.



Taken with a handheld (I forgot to put the tripod in the car!) 1Dmk3 and 500mm lens ISO 400 1/200s at F4

Cheers

Rich

[Linda Robbins]

This is the best image I have seen of this elusive bird. The pose is great and shows off the sharp plumage detail beautifullly. The head angle is ideal, Lovely background and perch. I just love this image, and the only thing I might consider is cropping a bit from the bottom. I enjoyed your accunt of how you got this image, The moments that we get to spend sharing the lives of our subjects are the best part of nature photography....the images are the bonus. I'll add my hopes that this young bird makes his incredible journey safely.

[Simon Bennett]

Excellent image Rich - great pose, eye contact, detail and background.

[Tony Whitehead]

Great shot, Rich. Lovely pose and head angle - great sharpness and feather detail. I would have been tempted to go to ISO800 to gain a bit more shutter speed without the tripod but you have done this well. Love the background story - they are the moments we remember - the images are just a reminder.

[Doug Brown]

Very well done Rich! Linda has done a great job of covering all the bases. And I agree with Tony about bumping the ISO (not that this image suffers from a lack of sharpness). Thanks for sharing!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Good job tracking an elusive bird and getting a sharp shot while handholding the 500

[Jonathan Michael Ashton]

What a cracker! Well done Rich, one of those once in a lifetime shots, excellent exposure and composition. It wasn't near Dungeon Wood by any chance?
Jon (Heswall)

[Ramon M. Casares]

Love the BG, the pose, the head turn, the colors, but the BG again is my favorite thing here! Congratualtions!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Wow, this is a beautiful bird in deed, the feathers on the wings reminds me of a Nightjar. Very good job.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find and story. I like the image a lot, nice soft light, head turn, details and BG!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Rich, this great! I thouroughly enjoyed reading your account about it too. One other thing I like is how the bird is perched at the very end of the branch, very nice :-) Did you photograph this as a vertical, or is it cropped from horizontal?

[Rich Steel]

Thanks for the replies and comments.

Jonathon it was not near Dungeon Wood but that is an interesting place for birds.

Daniel the photo was taken in potrait with very little crop.

Cheers

Rich

Cheers

Rich

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks for the replies and comments.


Daniel the photo was taken in potrait with very little crop.

Cheers

Rich

Even better! Good for you to have the presence of mind (and experienxce) to know when to flip the camera portrait-style.:)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the heads up. It would have been a shame to miss this lovely image.