I would normally never post a bird flying away from me but this is my exception.
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
D500, 420mm (300 w 1.4), f4, 1/200, iso2000
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Hi Dan, Great capture and experience. You have a lot of detail in both birds. Your timing is perfect with both birds having their wings widely spread at the same time. I wonder how long the harassment went on.
Dan, Not only an excellent bird behavior shot, but overall an excellent image. We have a number of red wings (they also chase the ospreys) and eagles in the Yakima River Canyon, and I have viewed this behavior many times. Have a few shots but not as good as this.
Nice catch. The eagle pays a price for being top bird. Also it is not often we see photos looking down on an eagle. And very sharp for 1/200. Good for you.
Really cool, Dan. I’ve caught this kind of action a couple of times, but never at even this good an angle and the wide spread wings of the Red-winged Blackbird with those epaulets blazing really add to the image.
PS. I wouldn’t automatically put down images of birds flying away. The only bird image posted on NPN that I’ve ever bought is a Barn Owl flying directly away into a snow storm by Ron Dudley. That’s quite a few years ago now and it’s still over my desk.
A very cool interaction. It’s nice the blackbird’s head was on the white tail. Otherwise, it would have been lost. The blackbird’s open beak adds a lot. It looks like there’s some noise in the BG? I’d run a round of NR on it. Was this really 1/200, or was that a typo?
This reminds me of a photo I have of a blackbird chasing a great egret in Louisiana. I’ll dig it out one day.
This is why we post behavioral images. This is fascinating. Good job. I’ll forgive you this time for the head not being in the right direction.