The image is taken by Pentax A* 300 f2.8 with 2 teleconverters in King lake national park.
For some years, I had been an avid bird watcher and photographer. Apart from the usual boring exotic myenas and native rosella, a lot of the native Victorian birds were rarely spotted.
Due to real life commitment to various daunting chores, this hobby had been neglected for a number of years. However, I spotted blue fairy wren every now and then after a plentiful raindrop this year. Yeah, thanks to El Nina that these wrens were somewhat more prevalent in my local reserve parks!
Therefore, I googled a bit of information on superb fairy wren and discovered something very interesting shown below...
"The Superb Fairywren is notable for several peculiar behavioural characteristics; the birds are socially monogamous and sexually promiscuous, meaning that although they form pairs between one male and one female, each partner will mate with other individuals and even assist in raising the young from such pairings. Male wrens pluck yellow petals and display them to females as part of a courtship display."
So what does it mean by socially monogamous and sexually promiscuous? It seems to apply to male gender in general after all. I do love that phrase "socially monogamous" being socially isolated? Then "sexually promiscuous" as animal instinct disinhibited?
No wonder male wrens look very colourful while females look very dull. Again, male wrens tend to hop around in a very agile fashion. Any photographers in South Eastern Australia would know photographying wrens is an incredible task even with autofocus lens. So this image has been something like a milestone after I could get some clarity out of this image using manual focus ring!!
Now I am hesistating about micro 4/3 system where there is little range of telephoto selection for an avid bird photographer.
Birds are really interesting entities where all their organs are packed inside that tiny bodies and move so quickly that make it almost impossible to capture them on cameras.
Roe
That really is a spectacular shot of a gorgeous bird. And you managed to pull it off with a manual focus lens!
ReplyDeleteHard to believe it's been 4 years since you took that picture, eh?
Maybe you'll take up bird watching once again. You have the 7D and there's a plethora of good telephoto lenses available for the EF mount.
In any case, it's nice to see you back in the game after such a long absence.
-Dan
Hey Dan, I am trying to get a bit of photography back in life. Everything seems so out of touch for me now...
ReplyDeleteGood to see that you are really into films these days.
beautiful photo and interesting post.
ReplyDeleteThe social life of these birds must be interesting, not to mention the sexual one. A great image and a very good post!
ReplyDeleteThis is a nice photo. I am sure you could get a bit closer so we could see more of the features of the bird. Other than that, I think it is a colorful bird photo of a bird I have never seen before.
ReplyDeleteFilm is really the best medium for street photography, James.
ReplyDeleteI tried astrophotography but it's impossible with the K100D's CCD sensor. The noise in long exposures is killer.
awesome catch!
ReplyDeleteIncredible how blue he is. So striking.
I've been thinking of a micro 4/3 too, but am put off by the manual focus.
that is a brilliant capture!!
ReplyDeleteA nice looking feloow. No wonder that the females fall in love;-)
ReplyDeleteLOL
ReplyDeleteThat is funny
Handsome bird! Have a fabulous week.
ReplyDeleteLiz @ MLC
Liz @ YACB
That’s a lovely capture. The bird is incredibly beautiful. Socially monogamous but sexually promiscuous confuses me 🤔
ReplyDeleteGorgeous bird, a great photo too. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a happy weekend. PS, thank you for leaving me a comment.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous little thing. Congrats on the capture! I can identify with the frustration of bird photography. Back when I could walk to the treeline where they all seem to hang out, my cats would go with me. The birds were so angry that they would bounce out of the canopy to scold us and I could get a shot. The cats were not outdoor cats, just hikers, and came inside with me, so everybody was safe. But oh, how productive the photography was!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous bird with such beautiful color. I love to photograph birds but it can be a challenge!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful color on the bird!
ReplyDeleteWhat a pretty bird and certainly living up to the "fairy" part of its name.
ReplyDelete