Collecting water.

[Dave Barnes]

The male Namaqua Sandgrous performs his fatherly duties at night, while the female remains on the nest throughout the hot day.
The chicks need water too, and now it is the male who comes into his own.
Every morning at the waterhole he dips his belly feathers under the surface and allows them to absorb waterlike a sponge:
each gram of feather can absorb up to eight grams of water. With his cargo complete,
he flies back to the chicks, and they drink the water directly from his breast feathers.


Camera Model Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/2000
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation +1/3
ISO Speed 400

[Harshad Barve]

Nice expo , HA, surroundings and tack sharp and great info
TFS

[Rohan Kamath]

excellent behavior captured here... loved the exposure and details...

[Mital Patel]

beautifully done. ditto harshad and rohan.

[Connie Mier]

Interesting behavior, thank you for sharing that info. A lovely low angle shot on the bird, very nice.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Good-looking bird, good angle and behavior. I wish for a bit more eye contact.

[Indranil Sircar]

Fascinating behavior! Nice angle, colors and details. TFS.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Super sharp and great habitat/behavioural image Barnsie! I love the composition and story behind it. Thanks for sharing. :)

[Stephen Stephen]

Dave very nice image and story here. I love the eye contact in this behavioural image.

I might be tempted to do a bit of counter clockwise rotation as the water ripples make it look as if it's running to the right of the frame. I'd still be pleased to have created this image though.

[Aidan Briggs]

Tack sharp and a great behavior image, though I would prefer a bit more of a head turn. I remember seeing these guys on The Life of Birds.

[denise ippolito]

Really nice sharpness and the behavior is very interesting. Wish for better HA. Thanks for sharing the interesting story.

[David Fletcher]

Fine shot Dave. Thanks for sharing info too. Good reminder of the efforts some specie need to bring up their offspring. WD!

[Ramon M. Casares]

I believe this is not an easy species to photograph, right.
Nice natural moment, sharpness and species :)
Congratulations!

[Harshad Barve]

I believe this is not an easy species to photograph, right.

They are extremely shy and very difficult to photograph here in India :)

[Dave Barnes]

Thanks to all for looking and for comments. Ramon and Harshad they are not that difficult once you find out were they fly in to drink as they return on most days at the same time, it is just a matter of waiting and being a bit patient. they do not stick around for that long and are a bit skittish.