Nature Photographers Network
This is the preserved archive of the original Nature Photographers Network. The community continues at naturephotographers.network.
Marvelous Spatuletail
‹ PreviousAvian GalleryNext ›

Marvelous Spatuletail

by Nate Chappell

Gallery: AvianPosted December 3, 2016158 views6 comments
Hi everyone, I've been mostly offline for the past month, leading a tour in Peru, I'm back and have finally gotten around to processing an image from it.  This is the male Marvelous Spatuletail, a rare Northern Peru endemic.  We photographed this at Huembo Lodge, while there are some lovely multi-flash photos taken of it and many niced perched shots, I did a search and there aren't many images of this species feeding naturally on flowers as in this shot, so we were thrilled to get this. 
Canon 1DX II, 500F4  1/500 F6.3, iso 1600, Av mode, evaluative metering -1.0, fill flash at -1.7, Gitzo Tripod, Wimberley head.

Comments

6 comments
Comment posted by Max Waugh on December 3, 2016 at 6:30 PM
Congrats, Nate.  I felt it was a privilege to see this species, and I'm not even a "hummingbird guy."  I like that you were able to get a bit of sparkle on the gorget.

Max
Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments
Comment posted by Dennis Plank on December 3, 2016 at 7:48 PM
Excellent, Nate.  Really good detail in the body and an excellent job of framing-not easy to do when a bird has this long a tail.

devil
Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments
Comment posted by Barbara Graham on December 3, 2016 at 9:17 PM
Congratulations, Nate!  Wonderful detail on the bird, and ditto Dennis on the framing. 
Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments
Comment posted by Ken Archer on December 4, 2016 at 5:33 AM
Welcome home Nate!

Looks like you had a wonderful time in Peru. What a beauty you have here, the large version is a must see. It's great to get this guy foraging in it's natural environment. Excellent flash work!

Sweet One devil
Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments
Comment posted by Hans Overduin on December 4, 2016 at 8:17 AM
These sort of specialties will never cease to amaze me.. You must be a happy man with this one sad.. Cool ! Hans
Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments
Comment posted by William Bickle on December 6, 2016 at 11:45 AM
Hello Nate ,... Amazing capture with this special guy. There sure is a lot to enjoy and like about this! The overhanging bright flower/branch  is somewhat distracting , but excellent isolation of the bird really helps here!

Thanks for sharing

Bill
www.BillBickle.com
 
Registered on June 13, 2011, 183 Posts, 1702 Comments