Common Tilapia Speared by Stork Billed Kingfisher

[knpan]

A Common Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) being speared by the Stork Billed Kingfisher (Halcyon capensis).

This shot and angle with the fish being pierced took me 2 whole months stalking, understanding this specfic bird's behaviour and knowing it's favourite perches.

It was paid off. It was featured in the book Private Lives : An Expose of Singapore's Mangroves.

Missed the top part, pardon me as the action happened way too fast and framing was not a criteria.

 

[Pearlang]

Good shots. The bird is pretty as well.

 

[mervin]

Well .....it paid off !

Awesome ! :thumbsup:

 

[rotisiao]

wah....lightning reactions!

 

[wkcheah76]

I have to give the ...... :thumbsup:

 

[henrykoh]

bravo, great pic and great committment

 

[strobby]

knpan ...great moment and commitment .. just started birding haven even got the chance to see this bird

 

[chngpe01]

Well done, great potential :thumbsup:

 

[trident]

wah 2 months of stalking, lucky that fellow didn't make police report of you stalking him

good action shot kennie

 

[dawson]

Wow! I didn't know it actually speared through the fish, thought it catches it with its beak all these while.

Nice action captured.

 

[Newguy69]

Good job, kennie :thumbsup:

 

[knpan]

thanks guys. Was shooting against the sun so lighting was not really in my favour, if not the color will have been better

 

[knpan]

thanks guys. Was shooting against the sun so lighting was not really in my favour, if not the color will have been better.

 

[boyboy]

awesome shot! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

for the 2nd shot, actually the composition is not too bad. by putting the bird too high, u captured most of the ripples at the bottom of the frame as well.

for me, it would be perfect if the shot were a little wider. i suppose it's uncropped? therefore, if wanna see a close up of the bird, can just use a tighter crop of the first pic.

2 months of stalking? how many trips did u make?

EDIT: wanna add, ur shutter speed is just about perfect. not sure if it was fully intentional (were u limited by light?) but i say perfect cos the bird's beak and fish are sharp, while i get a sense of action from the blurred wings. but the amount of blur is just nice IMHO. love it!

 

[erictan8888]

nice capture..... really inspiring....

 

[shunzi]

all the HARDWORK AND SWEAT! paid off..

Congrats bro.:thumbsup:

 

[knpan]

awesome shot! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

for the 2nd shot, actually the composition is not too bad. by putting the bird too high, u captured most of the ripples at the bottom of the frame as well.

for me, it would be perfect if the shot were a little wider. i suppose it's uncropped? therefore, if wanna see a close up of the bird, can just use a tighter crop of the first pic.

2 months of stalking? how many trips did u make?

EDIT: wanna add, ur shutter speed is just about perfect. not sure if it was fully intentional (were u limited by light?) but i say perfect cos the bird's beak and fish are sharp, while i get a sense of action from the blurred wings. but the amount of blur is just nice IMHO. love it!

thanks every1.

i have no more space at the top of the pic thats why the KF was at the edge of the frame for the 2nd pic, i feel that i just missed by a little bit, if not, it will have been a much better picture framing wise.

i will normally try to achieve at least 1/1600th for water splashing shots to really freeze the water movements and wing beats, but i was shooting against the sunlight as mentioned earlier , therefore the lowered shutter speed of 1/1000th of a sec.

Both of the pics were obviously cropped as i dont think anybody will have fast enough reflex to fill the whole bird in the frame 100 percent for really fast action shots. Of course , it is still possible for Frame filling image with usual flight shot from left to right, but i think it is really difficult for any1 to achieve 100 percent full frame shot of this different type of scenario.

Both are about 50 percent of the pic only. I have caught a pic of it fullframe of this KF diving that, even the wings are cut off from the frame. I will attach the pic below. Sadly i cant use it as i focused on the water droplets instead of the bird. I would have used it for a super close up action picture of the SBKF.


I did not count how many trips i made there, but it was more than 20 times, each day, appromimately 3 times of trying to get it in frame. The higer the frequency it dives, the more and better chance for me getting my dream shot. Many days , i would go there and get nothing in sight. So some trips were wasted, but i do not blame anything or anyone like that, because i believe in this genre of photography, one must always be prepared to have nothing at the end of the day.


kennie

 

[knpan]

This is the uncropped image at 250mm. Lighting was very good on that day too and i was shooting with the sun.
( If only the bird was in focused )
Notice the nicitating membrane covering its eyes to protect. Anything can happen in the water whilst wrestling with the fish

 

[boyboy]

ur last post was the most informative btw. i used to watch documentaries and have vague memories of that protective membrane over the eye..

anyways, congrats that ur efforts finally paid off with great shots

 

[saifulbahar]

Amazingly captured... :thumbsup: