A male Resplendent Quetzal taken before the sun hit the shade on a rarely found open perch about 10 m from my shooting location. Very lucky I guess. This is actually a manually blended 2 image (top and bottom) composite. I was actually too close even in vertical orientation to get the bird and the tail feathers in one image. Light was very low and required an iso-of 5000, no flash allowed at the shooting location. That’s a tiny avocado in its mouth. This is what it feeds to its young. The nest was about 75 m from this location in a hole in a tree. The bird was hanging out in the nest with its long tail feathers hanging out, came out of the nest and flew to this location within 15 seconds or less.
This is the national bird of Guatemala. The national bird of Costa Rica is a considerably less gaudy Clay -colored Thrush. The Quetzal is probably one of the number one target birds for eco-tours in Costa Rica. It is a member of the Trogon family. There were at least six or seven large groups in the area photographing this bird. This scene reminded me of combat fishing on some of the rivers in Alaska.
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Pertinent technical details or techniques:
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Iso-5000, AFS 500 mm 5.6 VR PF, F5 .6, 500th, handheld, two full frame images manually blended, D 500, no flash, DxO Photo Lab, Adobe Camera Raw 11.2, Topaz AI Clear, Topaz Adjust, TK sharpening action at 1%.
