Golden-headed Quetzal

Here's another shot from our last trip to Ecuador this January. This was taken at Sachatamia Lodge in Mindo. While walking back to my room I found this quetzal coming in to feed on a fruiting palm tree. It would fly back and forth from a perch to the tree. It occurred to me that I might be able to catch it in mid air grabbing a fruit, but that I would need a smaller lens. I took a few shots of it perched on the other tree and then went to my room to get my 300F4. It was still there feeding when I got back. When the bird started it's flight from the other tree I quickly focused on the strand of fruits. This was the best image I managed out of 3 flights of the bird to the fruiting tree. I could use some more room at the bottom but with this type of shot, it's tough to get the comp perfect as you are picking a spot and hoping the bird goes to it.

This was taken with the Canon 5D3 and I wouldn't have been able to pull it off with my older camera bodies due to noise and loss of image quality. It has made taking action photos in the cloud forest without flash a possibility that wasn't available to me before. This is about 40% of the original the iso was 3200.

5D3 300F4 1/1000 F5.6, iso 3200, handheld