Belted Kingfisher

[Loupey]

I recently found a mating pair of kingfishers and their den. After spending 3 consecutive days trying to get a shot of their namesake, I never witnessed, heard, nor captured them fishing.

Got rained out today. Will keep trying. In the meantime, here's some of what I got so far. For the in-flight shots, the background can be so distracting that I had to keep changing the shutter speeds to blur it out to make it less conspicuous. The three BIF's here represent 1/350s, 1/750s, and 1/1500s.

[SARtech]

I really like these. Great images as usual. Question... Are their head feathers always standing up when they are not in flight?

[OldClicker]

Nice shots of a bird that I understand is extremely difficult. - TF

[A.M.D.A.]

Wow, great shots, Loupey!!!

Can't pick a fave, but I really like the one of the birds in flight while panning the camera.

[CaraRose]

The last one with the reflection is gorgeous.

[Martin Brazil]

Loupey, another great set mate, are you panning with those flightshots ?

[Eric D]

Simply awesome!!!!

[Loupey]

Thanks everyone!

SARtech - they can flatten out those feathers if they feel threatened. But usually they are upright.

Martin - I always pan with the subject regardless of the species or shutter speed. But the effect becomes noticeable (with these kingfishers) when I start hitting shutter speeds of 1/500s and 1/350s.

[Martin Brazil]

I guess you have to to an extent with all flight shots but I like the effect the low shutter speed gives to the background. I shall try dropping the speed down a little myself this weekend although I bet this makes it more difficult eh ?

[Loupey]

I guess you have to to an extent with all flight shots but I like the effect the low shutter speed gives to the background. I shall try dropping the speed down a little myself this weekend although I bet this makes it more difficult eh ?

Yes, whenever the shutter speed goes slower, the difficulty goes higher.

A few more from around the same time. We've had some extremely heavy rains since then and I'm afraid that the nest may have been washed away. Will check next week.

[paulnj]

Awesome images my friend! Definately get back there for more images!