I got my second opportunity to see such brightly feathered birds in one day - the same day that I saw the Hyacinth Macaws. Loud and raucous like their blue cousins, I found the pair too busy stripping the tree of its bark and not really paying much attention to each other. So much so that I couldn't get a shot of them together despite my hanging around them for a while in the hopes they'd oblige me.
They appeared to be very curious birds by nature and really intent on what they were doing. I'm not sure whether they were actually eating the bark or just pecking at them in an attempt to gather nutrients.
Again, as with the Hyacinth Macaws, I had a great challenge photographing these birds in extremely low light. A long and heavy lens just didn't help and you will notice the slightly soft focus in some of the images. This happened for mainly two reasons, though - one of course was the low shutter speed, causing the pictures to be on the softer side, and the other one is the extreme application of noise reduction in post that softened out the details a little bit as well. However, I only got a handful of shots and these were some of them.
One of my favourite things to do outdoors is birding - find new bird species, photograph them, identify them and then learn about their behaviour, habitat, feeding and especially their songs and calls, so I can identify them when I hear them again. I will try to include as many pictures and as much information I can in these posts and I would love to hear about your birding experiences. Do you have some special stories to share? Do you have some tips to help me in the field?
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Military Macaw (Ara militaris)
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