Horned Screamer

Gallery: AvianPosted March 19, 2011194 views25 comments

Here's another shot from our scouting trip to Southwest Ecuador and a bird that was a target species for me. This was taken at Charutes Manglares Reserve near Guayaquil. These screamers are distantly related to geese and ducks. There are only 3 species and this one doesn't "scream" like the Southern Screamer but it's quite vocal. They are very big birds - about 35 inches or 90cm long and they have quite a ponderous flight.

I had setup a blind for these guys but wasn't having much luck, I could see them but too far away for good photos so I got out of the blind and simply slowly walked up to this one taking a few steps, taking a few shots and repeating. In the end I was surprised at how close I got. I may have been able to get closer but it was getting very muddy so I just sat down and shot from this area. It's cropped to about 65% of FF.

MkIV 500mm 1.4x 1/1000 F7.1, iso 1000, evaluative metering +0.3, Handheld

Comments

25 comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on March 19, 2011 at 10:13 PM

Interesting looking bird....looks more like a grouse than a duck! Congratulations on getting a target bird and a very fine image at that! Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on March 19, 2011 at 10:22 PM

cool bird, Nate, and nice job handholding. techs look good, and I like the setting. only thing that would make it better would be a slightly less static pose.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on March 19, 2011 at 10:31 PM

Nice pose and I like all the habitat in the image, Nate. Interesting looking bird.

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

Comment posted by S Govindarajan on March 19, 2011 at 10:50 PM

Terrific image, Nate! Excellent pose, background and perch - shows the habitat very well. Good techs and I like your choice of composition too.

The size of their feet is pretty impressive. Do they move on water surface like moorhens or jacanas?

Registered on April 19, 2008, 115 Posts, 1921 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 19, 2011 at 10:54 PM

Thanks for your comments all!

Govind, they are too big and heavy to walk on the top of lily pads etc like jacanas and moorhens. Their behavior is a bit more like geese but they perch up on trees and stumps much more often than most waterfowl.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on March 19, 2011 at 11:33 PM

Nate: What a cool looking bird and a superb capture. Gotta love the eye. >=))>

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1805 Posts, 26981 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Marquart on March 19, 2011 at 11:35 PM

Nice image Nate, interesting bird, and I like the result of your aperture setting on the background. Very nice.

Registered on October 24, 2009, 126 Posts, 799 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on March 19, 2011 at 11:36 PM

Neat! I know nothing of these birds so am very glad to see such a nice image and learn something about them.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on March 20, 2011 at 12:13 AM

Nate, I saw this species at Charutes as well, on Feb 4 2011. The recent rains made it impossible to approach the perched birds (5 in all). Our guide said the swamp was probably a meter or more deep. I am deeply envious you were able to get this close. Well done.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 20, 2011 at 12:43 AM

Thanks for your comments everyone!

Jim, I was there February 14th of this year so we didn't miss each other by much. We saw quite a few birds perched from the road but the swamp is impenetrable there. We were given permission by the rangers to park and walk into an area just north of where the birds by the road were. The birds do move around quite a bit and it wasn't long before they were in that area. I think that area is sometimes underwater as well but it was dry enough to navigate the dikes when we were there.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on March 20, 2011 at 7:29 AM

What a wonderful bird Nate - great detail and I love the setting. Is it in a swamp or grassland?

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on March 20, 2011 at 9:50 AM

Fantastic name for a bird and this photo is beautiful. I like most how the foot is spread out over that interesting perch and the feather on the top of the head is pointed like a Unicorn's horn

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by KC Choo on March 20, 2011 at 10:57 AM

Thanks for sharing this, Nate! I've often used the few-steps-approach that you described. Very nice!

Registered on November 15, 2004, 519 Posts, 8278 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 20, 2011 at 11:19 AM

Thanks for your comments guys.

Rob, I would describe the habitat there as marshes rather than swamps or grassland. There are a few trees in the marsh that they like to perch on top of. This is actually a fencepost he's on top of.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Sally King on March 20, 2011 at 11:21 AM

Love that red eye and that head plume. Amazing details for a bird smaller in the frame. Love those feet too.

Registered on December 2, 2008, 416 Posts, 4450 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Cloran on March 20, 2011 at 1:01 PM

Thanks for sharing Nate, I had never even heard of these, let alone having seen an image of one. Excellent techs as always.

Registered on April 6, 2004, 119 Posts, 1989 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 20, 2011 at 2:33 PM

A wildl looking bird Nate. Never heard of this species before. A very nice look at this bird with a great BG showing the habitat it was in. Very nice.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Simon Bennett on March 20, 2011 at 3:41 PM

Amazing bird well captured.

Registered on February 4, 2007, 350 Posts, 4614 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Backlund on March 20, 2011 at 5:48 PM

I too have used that method to approach some birds, it can be amazingly successful and it does work quite often. A very interesting bird, wish I could see one.

Registered on September 29, 2005, 252 Posts, 3380 Comments

Comment posted by Graham Brown on March 20, 2011 at 6:50 PM

That's another interesting bird you've captured here Nate.Not sure what that is sticking out of his head or what it could be used for but I've seen nothing like this. Nice to have your fieldcraft rewarded because this approach doesn't always work. Really sharp considering it was handheld and I like the natural habitat background. So many people seem to be using iso's of 1000 these days and achieving low noise or grainless images - I'm being left behind with my 7D!. Graham

Registered on November 20, 2007, 275 Posts, 1365 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 20, 2011 at 7:58 PM

Thanks everyone!

Graham, I should have explained that the "horn" is simply some elaborate feather/s, I think for decoration only. However, this bird has some mean spurs on it's wings that it can use to help defend itself, I will post a photo showing those next time.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Andrius Pašukonis on March 20, 2011 at 8:03 PM

Very interesting bird and great presentation. I like the perch a lot. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on July 23, 2005, 111 Posts, 408 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 21, 2011 at 12:10 AM

Very nice image of a very unusual looking bird Nate, and I applaud your field craft in being able to approach the subject without scaring it off, very well done :^)

Kind regards,

Ashley

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

Comment posted by Ken Archer on March 21, 2011 at 1:31 PM

Super Cool Bird!!! Sweet Portrait Nate

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on March 21, 2011 at 5:04 PM

What an interesting bird and one I have never heard of. Great job in approaching to get this shot, excellent IQ, sharpness and I really like the composition. Wonderful image and the larger version looks great, way to go Nate.

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