Mess with him...

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 20, 2011236 views7 comments

... and you mess with me. The love-hate relationship between ox-peckers and their hosts has always fascinated me. Sometimes the birds seem more of a hindrance than a help. These two did seem to be getting on well though. Many thanks to Ashley Vincent for the title suggestion.

David

Nikon D300, 300mm f2,8 Nikon, 1.7x Nikon converter. 200 ISO, 1/160th @f7.1

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on October 20, 2011 at 10:18 AM

David, like the detail in the buffalos face, the ox-pecker sets this off from other African buffalo images, well done. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Robbie Knight on October 20, 2011 at 1:51 PM

great contrasting picture (large/small, clean/dirty,) and I love the intensity in the buffalos eyes... Thanks for sharing.

Registered on April 10, 2010, 30 Posts, 135 Comments

Comment posted by Carol Nichols on October 20, 2011 at 3:45 PM

What a terrific image David. It makes me smile and I love it when that happens.

Registered on November 7, 2007, 161 Posts, 1420 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on October 21, 2011 at 8:05 AM

Hi David,

Yep, this one is a smiler! I like the tilted head of the ox-pecker and the bit of contrast (in colour) it provides. My only nit is that the bit of grassy/light brown vegetation in the upper right corner is a bit distracting - in a perfect world it would have jumped out of the frame at the last minute!

Cheers...thanks for sharing this one...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on October 21, 2011 at 4:00 PM

I love the look on the birds face in this shot David. Good job getting both subjects with nice detail. I do wish the grass on the top right wasn't there, but can't have everything right?

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Anand Narayanan on October 22, 2011 at 1:47 AM

Awesome Image ! It takes some character to outshine a cape buffalo !

This lends itself nicely to a caption contest

Registered on October 25, 2009, 110 Posts, 835 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on October 23, 2011 at 9:20 PM

Great to see you made a special post of this wonderful shot too David, makes me chuckle every time I look at it :^)

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments