A stunned Kookaburra hung around for a while yesterday

[Peter_AUS]

This is a common bird Kookaburra around where I live and native to Australia only I think, especially early morning at sunrise and late sunset. It is also called a Jackass as well, referred to in the Aboriginal Story Tellings and has to do with announcing the rise and fall of the sun. It is said that if they stoped their laughing then the sun would diasppear according to the Story Tellings. This was really one in a series of grab shots that I got, I think he had banged into one of my Windows as it has heat reflective film on it to reduce heat in the bedroom and front room below and might have thought he saw another Kookaburra and attacked it. They usually live in a communal type of grouping in the local bushland.

Does this now qualify me as a BirdNerd Too.

[mattp]

Peter - Good capture. great depth of field, looks nice and sharp too. My only thought is that the way this is cropped at the moment isn't making the most of the picture. It gives the impression that you have accidentally cut off his feet, but I think this is easily remedied by cutting off just a little higher to leave the viewer in no doubt that this is a portrait.

regards,

matt

[Peter_AUS]

Matt, actually I did cut off the feet, it is only cropped from the sides and top a bit. As I said is was from a series of shots, as I was trying to get as many without it flying away. I was about 8 - 10 feet away from it, and it was elevated to about 6 - 8 feet above me so to speak. I took this from just outside my front door, which looks at the back of other Town houses as I live in a 300 Town house complex, so lack of my movement was essential.

This thing moved about 2 minutes after I took the shots as someone left thier place 2 doors down and walked down the walkway so the moment was over.

Thanks for the comments though. Lighting isn't the greatest but it was quite overcast when I took it, as we had just had some rain for about 24 hours on and off and cloud cover was still lower and completely covering the sky. I thought about maybe using a flash, but thought it might have scared the bird off. These are quite timid birds although they love to eat lizards.

[villenadecorte]

Peter,
I like that the bird is sharp and there aren't any large softspots, which I often see when people snap pictures of birds. I agree about the cropping, but I don't think it breaks the image you've captured. You've also done a great job capturing the details, considering the lighting.
Great shot.
Rebekah
VillenaDeCorte

[paulnj]

Rebekah is correct on all points, so no need for me to rewrite then.

I think both feet would strengthen the image and flashh usually doesn't scare birds off unless it is full power( I use -1 to -2ev usually)

ANYONE can be a birdnerd, all you have to do is shoot a WILD bird SOMEWHERE in your frame ;)

[Peter_AUS]

Thats to you both, I have a couple of others that I think might be a little better than this one, but I was trying to get a bit of detail in the Bill and head/feathers hence why I zoomed in a bit close, I have tried getting one of this bird before, but they don't usually let you get too close to them here, I think kids throw rocks at them to scare them off and that makes them warie a bit.

[opus]

Wow, I'm taken back to my childhood ... elementary school, probably the first or second grade ... where we used to sing:

Kookaburra sits in the old gum treeee
merry merry king of the bush is heeeee
Laugh, Kookaburra,
laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay old life has he!


And now I've finally seen one, 30-some years later!

[almo]

Nice birdy peter! Great comp and clarity. Love the name on that one, I thought that Kookaburra was a city is aus?



Flashram_Peter Camera Bird Nerd #3


almo