Pygmy Falcon

Gallery: AvianPosted July 13, 201181 views8 comments

Our first ever sighting of this tiny raptor (18-20 cm) and what a pleasure it was, nice light and great poses.

Taken in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park,21st June 2011

EOS 1D MkIV

500mm F4 IS hand held through pop up roof on my vehicle.

F7.1, ISO 800, 1/800, EV -0.67 ( I was hoping for a flight shot)

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on July 13, 2011 at 9:42 AM

Beautiful, Ken. I love the pose and detail is excellent. Looks like there are a couple of faint cloning artifacts in the lower left quadrant. A little more space might be nice, but adding branch is pretty difficult (at least for me).

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Marsel van Oosten on July 13, 2011 at 11:31 AM

That's tiny. Nice shot, I ditto Dennis' remarks on space and cloning traces.

I think it's waving at you.

Registered on March 9, 2004, 285 Posts, 2277 Comments

Comment posted by Terry Sohl on July 13, 2011 at 1:45 PM

Wow, what a beautiful bird! Strong light, but very well handled, with nice plumage detail. Also agree about the cloning.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 513 Posts, 6889 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on July 13, 2011 at 2:43 PM

That must of been an wonderful encounter, I have never heard of these. Nice pose and light to bring out the details, artifact nits already mentioned, congratulations on your first sighting of this. What an interesting and small falcon, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on July 13, 2011 at 4:38 PM

Neat bird. Love the raised foot and the pastel colors against the blue background.
May

Registered on February 22, 2007, 714 Posts, 8470 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on July 14, 2011 at 12:55 AM

Thanks for all of your comments, seems like I posted the unfinished version, I nearly always try to work to fast

I have now reworked the file, with a lot better ( I hope cleaning up of the bottom left hand corner)

BTW Dennis I was trying to extend the branch, more space would have been nice but as always the additional space is filled with twigs and branches and I try to avoid "cleaning up" as much as possible

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Verdon on July 14, 2011 at 1:03 AM

What a a-mazing pose, congrats!!!

Registered on June 10, 2011, 147 Posts, 1444 Comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on July 14, 2011 at 9:05 PM

Sweet as it gets! Love the headtilt and raised foot.Great design for the perch too.

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments