Behaviour: Red-legged Honeycreeper

[Leander Khil]

Another image from my recent Costa Rica trip.
Although I like the leaves in the bg, which show the bird's rainforest habitat, they could have been further away (esp. the bright one behind the spider)... unfortunately one can't choose the circumstances in not-staged, unprepared wildlife images..
The bird tried twice to pick the spider out if its web, but didn't succeed. I got two shots, one of them sharp, before the bird moved on.

Comments very welcome.


Red-legged Honeycreeper vs. Golden Silk Orb-weaver
Nikon D300 + AF-S VR 70-300 at 300mm, f6.3 1/320s ISO 200 flash

[Keith Carver]

A well-captured moment of face-off, Leander. Even though the bird isn't looking at you, it is certainly focused on the spider! Nice specular reflections from the web. The branch behind the bill is somewhat distracting, could be easily removed. The bird seems slightly overexposed, maybe flash too hot?

[Fabs Forns]

Bird is in business. Branch behind the bird and partially burned leaf are very distracitng and as mentioned, the bird could go a bit darker.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very interesting behavior and I like that we can see the spiderweb so well. I would desaturate the greens a few points.

[Steve Canuel]

Big spider! Don't know if I would've wanted to see him eat that thing. An interesting shot to capture and observe.