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Thread: Male Snail Kite Courtship Dive with Snail

  1. #1
    Lifetime Member Jim Neiger's Avatar
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    Default Male Snail Kite Courtship Dive with Snail

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    Osceola County, Florida - 1D Mark IV, 500mm+1.4xTC, hand held from boat, manual exposure, 1/1600, F5.6, ISO 500

    The Male Snail Kites perform a courtship flight where they rise straight up and then dive repeatedly. They often do this while carrying nest material or prey which they present to the female. In this case it was an Island Apple Snail still in the shell.
    Jim Neiger - Kissimmee, Florida

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    Jim, I am speechless (critique-less?) as this is so good. Totally awesome and inspiring.

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    The bird itself is spot on and the snail is a nice bonus. The isolated oof coloration in the background detracts from the image since there is no way to know what it is.

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    Beautiful image, wonderful detail, great light in the bird's eye, snail puts it over the top for me. I don't think the oof color detarcts from the image.
    Gen

  5. #5
    Ofer Levy
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    Fantastic light, colours and pose. However, head looks quite soft to me. I think the critical focus was on the wings/tail area.

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    Exceptional Image Jim.

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    Not seen a better image !!

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    Great top view...Light and exp look good and the OOF section on the Bg does not detract for me...Just the edges around the bird look a bit strange. Almost like selective NR on the BG effected the edges (but not sure what) also the snail looks a bit strange. Nothing wrong with the photograph it looks like top class work...Maybe just a revisit of PP

  9. #9
    Thom Howd
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    I love the top of the wing perspective of this kite in a dive displaying this courtship behavior. the image seemed to invite the eyes to leisurely explore the details as I initially found my attention going from one part of the details in the kite, down to the snail and then back to explore more detail of the bird. A very nice capture.

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