Oriental Honey Buzzard

[Kiran Poonacha]

Was lucky to get this shy beauty on the anthill last week.

spec:1/500, F 7.1, ISO 400

Canon 1DMK4 + 500mm + 1.4TC

[Randy Stout]

Kiran:

Another beauty. Sharp, well exposed and posed, nice BG.
Amazing eye. Did it require any work to be so dramatic?

Cheers

Randy

[Danny Laredo]

Kiran, congrats on a stunning image.

[Giulio Zanni]

Impressive bird and image, congratulations

[Kiran Poonacha]

Thank you all for your kind words...

@ Randy: the bird on the whole, had to brighten up the back and wing feathers as the light was against it. A little bit of cloning to knock off a plant next to the anthill. not much on the eye bhai, just a bit of brightening.

thanks again,

Kiran.

[Tony Whitehead]

Great detail, pose, perch and BG. Good job, Kiran.

[subhrashis]

Jaw droppingly awesome. Can't think of any improvement unless you got it to say "Hi!" from the photo... :)
Don't worry, it already does!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Awesome Kiran. The pigeon-face of the honey buzzard makes it so different from other raptors. Loved the bokeh...among other things. Wonderfully done.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Excellent one again, great BG too. Very interesting shape of this bird.
Long neck, and elongated head. Why Honey in their name,
can you tell us a bit about their ecology (feeding etc.)

[Gary Irwin]

Beautiful image! I wouldn't know how to improve it.

[Morkel Erasmus]

this one has some serious "pop" Kiranbhai...lovely golden light and clean surrounds too. I might shave a sliver off the LHS and add a notch to the RHS if you have it.

[denise ippolito]

Kiran, Beautiful pose and details. I love seeing the talons so clearly. Are these birds ever banded?

[Ramon M. Casares]

Superb image of a sepcies that I didn´t even know that existed! Congratulaitons! Light, pose, perch, detail, colors and sharpness are simply outstanding!

[Ajit Huilgol]

Another stunner, Kiran! And to answer Ilija Dukovski's question, honey buzzards feed on honey, bees, lizards and even bird chicks of other species.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Thank you all so much for your encouragement... really appreciate it..

thank you Dr. for the inputs, just to add a little more they feed on the honeybee larvae often breaking the honeycomb, there name comes from that.

@ Denise: I have not really come across anybody banding these birds from the place I come from (Bangalore). there is lot of study to be done on raptors in india, but now the new generation with a lot of exposure sure will have to take it forward.

Thank you again..

Kiran.

[Markus Jais]

Stunning shot with great perch and perfect HA.

Markus

[Harshad Barve]

Another killer and winner Shot Kiranbhai
TFS

[Chris van Rooyen]

Awesome species, and your usual top standard. Fantastic low angle

[Ilija Dukovski]

thank you Dr. for the inputs, just to add a little more they feed on the honeybee larvae often breaking the honeycomb, there name comes from that.

Thanks Kiran and Ajit for the information, fascinating bird.