African Openbill

[Chris Kotze]

A bird not to often seen in South Africa so for me it was a great sighting in the KNP
Canon EOS 40D Lens 100-400 l 5.6
SS 1/800 ISO40 f8

[Randy Stout]

Chris:

This is a wild looking fellow. What does it eat? I would think the bill is some adaptation for straining out large amounts of water when it scoops up something out of the water?

He looks pretty sharp, but perhaps some loss of detail. How big of crop?

The reflections off the bill are a bit distracting. Perhaps those could be toned down a bit.

If you have a bit more canvas to the left, I would consider including that.

Thanks for sharing!

Randy

[Doug Brown]

Cool looking bird! Agree about removing the specular highlights, and I might also clone out the shadow to the right of the tail feathers.

[Stu Bowie]

Great sighting Chris. Never seen one before. Where abouts in Kruger did you see him. Comp works fine, and love the colours on him. The highlights on the head looks like water to me.

[Chris Kotze]

Thanks for all the comment. I have down the highlights on the bill and removed the shadow.

Randy they eat clams and small fish.............. Stu up north at Shingwedzi

[Doug Brown]

Nice edit Chris. However, we prefer that you repost in a reply rather than changing the image in the original post. It's a better learning experience for BPN members. Thanks!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I haven't seen many images of this species and the side view really shows the bill well. A lower angle would have helped with the BG if it was an option to get lower.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I agree with Doug about reposting an image. I don't see the changes, but that's fine.

Congrats on a great image of a very interesting bird. Wow, that bill is so interesting.

[Chris Kotze]

Thanks everyone ..............Appologies Doug I didn't now that I had to repost the edit version in a reply:o. Next time I will do so