The red-necked nightjar (Caprimulgus ruficollis) is my favorite bird species and I have devoted a noticeably part of my life to study its behavior (by the way, the name of my website is one of the local Spanish names of this bird, “la zumaya”). During the past weeks I have been searching for new territories because almost 99% of the photographs that I have on this species are colour slides and the number of digital images that I have can be counted with the fingers of just one hand.
This one is my first attempt in several years to photograph the species. After a couple of days searching for territories and nests I have located several resting places and perches and I hope to get better results very soon (if I can find enough free time, of course). This is the first decent image of this species that I have made after about 12 years. During that time I made just a couple of photographs of the species, by chance I must say (one digiscoped and another one with a 200-400 VR). This one is the first that I made after a serious search for the bird and it is more rewarding in terms of satisfaction and image quality.
This male was on a resting spot that, according to my observations, has been used by the species during the period 1993-2002 and now, 17 years later, the same spot (about a couple of square meters in the shadow of a tree) is still being used by the species. An amazing example of fidelity for a resting spot.
In this image I like the sidelight, the isolation of the bird profile against the dark BG, the beautiful semiopened eye and the details of the habitat and how the feathers pattern makes the bird almost invisible in the ground. Self critic: I am wondering why I did not used f8 to get more DOF? :confused:
As always, your critics, coments and suggestions are highly apreciated :)
PS. A detailed crop of the head is available at my blog
Lucky you, must be great to find them in the same area for such a long time period. I like the angle and setting, sharpness looks good, too. I particularly like the fact how it is lit. If anything, I might crop a tad off the bottom and left.
It is impressive to see the way he mimics his surroundings, I guess protection is a high priority on his list.
Perfect spotlight situation to emphasize the eye. Nothing like being in love with your subjects :)
Red necked nightjar (Caprimulgus ruficollis)
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