Pin-tail Wydah

September 13, 2014 Pin-tail Wydahs are natives of sub-Saharan Africa. There are colonies in Southern California and Africa. This pair was photographed at Huntington Beach Central Library Park. I find their behavior to be fascinating. This photo captures the male showing off for the female, which is part of their mating ritual. While this shot was with the D800, I took many other shots with the D4. This display went on so long that I filled my buffer twice with about 40 shots each in one sequence. He was captured as he flapped his wings and dipped up and down and side to side to get her attention. Another interesting factoid is that they do not hatch their own eggs, but lay the eggs in a nearby Finch nest, and the mama Finch hatches, raises and fledges the babies.

Nikon D800 Nikkor 600mm ISO 800 1/1250 f/8 white balance auto shot on a tripod with a Wimberley Gimbal. Processed in Lightroom, PSCC14, NIK and TK.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. Let me know if I have overlooked something.