mating Kingfishers (with revised image)

With a traditional Kingfisher nest site only a couple of hundred metres from my home and with the birds visiting my own (specially constructed ) garden ponds on a regular basis, I've been lucky enough to have been able to study and photograph - often at very close range - these shy and elusive birds for thousands of hours over the last few years.

As a result I've built up a fairly comprehensive collection of behavioural shots showing almost every aspect of the breeding activities of these birds - all under Licence from Natural England of course.

I'll post some of these over the coming weeks/months (and probably bore you all to death in doing so ) and to begin here's one of a sequence of shots I took during one of the many mating sessions I've observed/photographed.

Judging by my extensive research about Kingfishers, their mating is something that hasn't been photographed too many times and as these sessions typically last only 4 or 5 seconds (no jokes please ladies ) they are easily missed.

This particular shot is one of my favourites/best of the 120 or so mating shots that I have - the poses adopted are often ungainly and not aesthetically attractive but I like the symmetry of the male's outstretched wings in this one. And catching the female's exposed nictitating eyelid was a bonus.

I've got several edited/cropped versions of it - landscape, portrait and nearly square (as here) and have cropped or cloned out some branches from the top/left side edges.

This particular version has done quite well for me in both local and regional camera club competitions and has also been published as a full page spread in a recent photo essay I did for 'Birds Illustrated ' magazine. It's also been selected for inclusion in Cambs County Bird Report.

However and having said all that, I'm not entirely convinced that I've yet made the best of the image in terms of processing and would welcome the views of UKNP members on how I might improve it.

Thanks for looking .

Tech details - taken with Canon EOS30D, Canon EF 100-400 L IS lens at 280mm, f/4, 1/800th sec, ISO800

Hi Jeff,

As a fellow Kingfisher enthousiast i like to congratulate you on this fantastic shot. I know that these mating sessions only take seconds as i too have witnessed them many times and know how hard it is to get it right.
My only minor nit is that there are a lot of artifacts in the shot that seem to be due to either sharpening or more likely compression of the image.

Have you sharpened the image in another format and then resharpened or compressed it to upload it here? It is often bets to save it for web in PS in the size you need for this website.

Hope to see more of your great Kingfisher shots!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

very impressive Jeff, that's a great behavioural shot and well timed too. I can also see the artifacts but they should be fairly straightforward to re-process.

Matt

Hi Jeff,

Cracking shot! I agree about the artifacts, will look fantastic if they are removed. Nicely done.

Cheers,

Lewis.

Artifacts aside, it is a great image, I might like a little more space around but again thats minor....

Brillant capture and very rarely seen behaviour!!,nits mentioned,but takes doing away from this stunning image,very well done Jeff

Jeff

Just Superb.

Great shot, but what is happening just above the males head. colour and detail look funny?

Brilliant work.

Boy, you guys are good!

"Have you sharpened the image in another format and then resharpened or compressed it to upload it here?" - Yes - Jeroen's diagnosis is spot on I thought it didn't look too good when it came up on here Thanks for pointing it out Jeroen

Here's a re-processed version which I think (hope!) removes the artifacts - is it better?

And thanks for all the positive comments - much appreciated

Finally and with regard to Liam's comment - I presume that's the area mainly affected by artifacts but the bird's feathers on the top of its head are also sticking up.

PS. and how spooky is this - just as I was making this post one of our local Kfs came into our garden and nicked one of my fish

Very nice indeed Jeff. I have tried all year to get a shot of one KF never mind two! Now you are just showing off A great series.

I can relate to the glazed expression in the female's eye

In the immortal words of my wife who is looking over my shoulder "WOW"

Great capture, very well done

Thanks Maggie - I thought one of the girls might pick up on that

And thank you Peter, and especially Peter's wife

4-5 seconds and she has time to shut her eyes....hmm....she's lucky LOL.

Jokes aside, this is a seriously admirable, and rare shot Jeff. Second version is better...a super study of our wonderful kingfisher.

Fran

Superb shot - got the lot

Wow, what a great shot.

Thanks for the kind comments Fran ( ), Dave and Sandra - much appreciated