One of the rare legendary birds in the world - the Black-Faced Spoonbill

[devilry]

The Black-Faced Spoonbill - 黑面琵鷺

Quoted from Wikipedia at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-faced_Spoonbill]

"The Black-Faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor) has the most restricted distribution of all spoonbills, and it is the only one currently regarded as endangered. Confined to the coastal areas of eastern Asia, it seems that it was once common throughout its area of distribution. Currently, it has a niche existence on only a few small rocky islands off the west coast of North Korea, with three wintering sites at Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam, as well as other places where they have been observed in migration."

I guess I am lucky to be at the right place and at the right time, and am really glad to be able to spot and capture images & videos of the legendary bird - the Black-Faced Spoonbill. As noted in the wikipedia link, the last census recorded only 2,346 Black-Faced Spoonbills in the world in 2010, and I was lucky to be able to spot at least around 20+ of them, which is about 1% of the entire population.

I have tried to find this bird for close to 5 times overseas, but this is the first time I managed to see it with my own eyes, am really really really very glad, extremely excited & happy.

Here I present the legend, the Black-Faced Spoonbill. Enjoy ~

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[devilry]

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[devilry]

In #9 and #10, you can easily see that this is the river where I spotted 20+ of the Black-Faced Spoonbill along the whole stretch. It's really a very magnificent sight. After finding it unsuccessfully for several times previously, and finally this time round I managed to spot 20+ of it at the right place & at the right time, the feeling is really totally un-describe-able.

Spotting the Black-Faced Spoonbill is one of the few occasions whereby I literally smile to myself when I peer at it through the viewfinder.

At the moment where I saw it, I totally forgotten that I was at a place which is < 10 degrees celsius, forgotten about the frostbite on the lips, forgotten about the strong heavy wind, forgotten that I am carrying 15+kg worth of load, forgotten about the tiredness and shoulder pain due to trekking through several kilometres... Everything just doesn't matter anymore.

This is the joy of bird photography, the satisfaction is immense...

 

[Noctis]

Superb shots there .. :thumbsup:



Here I am hoping to venture into the wild in the near future and capturing such rare moments and experiencing what you had just gone though, that immense joy and excitement contained within.



Shots taken with 500mm and 2x converters?

 

[Ally]

Lucky you! :thumbsup:

 

[devilry]

Superb shots there .. :thumbsup:



Here I am hoping to venture into the wild in the near future and capturing such rare moments and experiencing what you had just gone though, that immense joy and excitement contained within.



Shots taken with 500mm and 2x converters?

Yep, the shots are taken with the canon 500mm and the 2x teleconverter

I am also really really glad to get the 2x teleconverter previously, because the bird is quite far away (~ 50metres) and the 1.4x is not really able to cut it distance wise...

 

[Purance]

Grats on the catch
Love yr shots

 

[commonjunks]

Great job devilry.
How is 1D4 performing with 500+2xTC? a lot of hunting or quick snap on focus?

 

[Astroben]

Wa... Gotta buy 4D Liao.
Nice!

 

[MRSAMO]

Wow I can imagine the excitement of seeing something so rare, "unpack slowly, set it up steadily and smile slowly". Good capture.

 

[devilry]

Great job devilry.
How is 1D4 performing with 500+2xTC? a lot of hunting or quick snap on focus?

Thanks!

If the lighting is good, the focusing is quite acceptable i.e. there is some hunting but still ok and the target can be locked on with relative ease, but its definitely not as good as with 1.4x.

But there is one major drawback with using the 2x teleconverter i.e. can only auto focus with the centre AF point. Thus if i am using the viewfinder to shoot, most of the time I cant focus on the eyes of the bird, if the eyes are not in the centre of the image.

Thus taking these Black-Faced Spoonbills as example, most of the pics I used live view and move the AF point to the eyes manually + used contrast detect AF instead to lock the focus on the bird eyes and shoot.

 

[eddylynx]

Nice catch of this rare bird.

 

[Cinaboy]

Good catch devilry :thumbsup:

 

[Sardinecan]

Great pictures of a rare bird!

 

[toshio217]

Wow, great catch of this bird!