It's been a while (Tropical Screech-Owl)

[Ramon M. Casares]

Hi all! Happy 09 to everybody! First I wanted to let you know that I have not been participating as much due to my new job, I've started working in an Advertising Agency.. sadly, I have to make money and here in Argentina Wildlife Photography simply does not pay enought but I am on it :). So well, that said I know would like to share a "work in progress" shot, I am decided to get a nice lighten shot of these birds, and I had the oportunity to work with this fellow last wekend, but only with two flashes, next week I'll give it another try but with probably 4 or five flashes that I'll borrow from firends. Still,hope you like this one as it is ;) Enjoy!

Mark II
Tv 1/320Seg.
Av F6.3
ISO
400
207,0 mm
Two flashes
RAW

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Good to see you post again. Great find and capture although I don't think it is a good idea to use flash on nocturnal birds. It blinds them for several minutes and increases the chance of injury or death.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Would you recomend me to use continous lighting? I could managed to get some powerfull lights for the set-up.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Would you recomend me to use continous lighting? I could managed to get some powerfull lights for the set-up.

Ideally, you would photograph the bird during the day. In this case flash would not be a problem. I read an article by an ophthalmologist about flash photography in regards to birds such as owls. Flash at night blinds them for a while and we don't want them to crash into a tree or wall after being photographed. I don't know if a steady light source would be different in this respect. Personally, I wouldn't photograph them at night, just to be on the safe side. Maybe there is someone on the forum who knows more about this topic.

[bill kominsky]

Welcome back Ramón and I'm sure we all missed your wonderful images, as is this one. What Axel said is true but it is only very temporary and it passes, great job on this beautiful bird.

Bill

[Bryan Erb]

Nice capture, like the composition, and how it shows this owl in his element...

[Stu Bowie]

Super comp, and love the concentrated stare in this. Well captured.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Thank you all for your kind words and suggestions, I´ll search about the use of flash with these birds as I´ve never heard that this could be such a probelm. Thanks!

[Melvin Grey]

Ramon, Axel, I have photographed Owls using flash on numerous occasions since the early '70's. The work was carried out from hides (blinds) and I was able to watch closely the birds reaction to the flash - if the level of ambient light was too low for observation, then a torch with a red filter was used. At NO time did I ever see evidence of an owl being temporarily blinded by the flash. They would take no notice of the flash, land at the nest site, feed their young and fly away through the branches with NO trouble at all. Obviously, being able to observe them at close range, had there been ANY indication that the flash was causing any distress to the birds then I would not have continued. It is obvious that an owls vision is very different from our own, they do not appear to have 'image retention' as we do. This image retention that we have is the reason that we, as humans, are temporarily blinded by a sudden burst of bright light, particularly in a low ambient light situation. It is also the reason we see, for example, a torch or a firework whirled around at arms length as a continual circle of light. In the hide/nest situation, when the owl made it's first visit and the flash went off, it would sometimes react to the slight noise emitted by the flashgun and would land and and make the occasional alarm call, however, as nothing happened as a result of that noise/flash it would then feed its young and would take no further notice on any subsequent visits. I repeat - I have NEVER seen any indication that the Owl was dazzled or inconvenienced in any way by flash photography.
I submitted a posting many forums ago of a Tawny Owl flying in with a mouse to its nest site and young and Axel commented very favourably on this image. The Owl cut an infra-red beam, triggering the camera and flash, and catching it with wings spread just on the point of landing. I watched and photographed that family until the young birds left the nest and was able to document the variety of prey brought into the site. Neither the adult or the young birds ever showed any sign of distress as a result of the use of flash.
If you have any further questions, please e-mail me through the forum.
Melvin

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thank you for your input, Melvin! That is good to know. I have never photographed owls at night and have no firsthand experience. I'm not sure I can find the article that I read a couple of years ago, if I do I will post a link.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Thanks Melvin, I apreciate very uch all the info that you have given us about the use of flash for nocturnal birds, I was left a little worried about the possibility of having hurt the Owl so I didn't try more flashes this weekend, I didn't even went, after all this, I'll keep searching as I have seen lots of images of Owls that were taken woth many flashes and this is the first time I heard about the risk this could cause. For what I have expirienced, the Owl didn't have any problem with flash but this is probably the second or third time I do this. I'll keep looking for more info but I apreciate a lot all you've shared with us!

[Juan Aragonés]

Ramón during a good amount of years I was an scientific reseracher in animal behaviour at the University of Córdoba. My PhD research was devoted the behaviour of the red necked nightjar, a nocturnal bird species (comunication, sexual selection, mate choice and defensive/antipredator strategies). I did not conducted an especific research on the effect of light on that species but, in my opinion, they seems to be not very affectet by light. I have seen, lots of times, a nightjar (or a litle owl) perched under the light of a torch or the lights of a car hunting a tiny insect flying between the bird and the light source WITHOUT a problem. Lots of nocturnal birds die, each year, in the roads due to casualties. Many people think that they are killed due to the fact that cars "blind" them, but it is not true. Most of those species are criptic and rely in their camouflaje and motionless as a defensive method. When a car is a coming in the night they simple try to use their defensive method.. to keep motionless but, unfortunately, it doesn´t works with a fast car in a road :-(