Stephen Burch's Birding & Dragonfly Website

Home | Trip Reports | Gallery | UK index | Oxon pics | UK pics | Dragonflies | Other Nature | Links

Orange Winged Parrot

Flagstaff Hill, Tobago 25 February 2015
EOS 7D mk II and 400 f4DO & x1.4TC. 1/1600 sec f5.6 ISO 1600

Flagstaff Hill was recommended to us by some other visitors staying in the same hotel in Tobago as somewhere it is possible to look down on the canopy.  So we drove up here one afternoon to have a look around. There wasn't much to be seen in the canopy but there were a few Orange Winged Parrots flying around, so I set up my tripod and camera to see what I might get. Just once in an hour or more of waiting a parrot appeared in just the right direction and came pretty close. It was flying incredibly fast, so I was lucky even to get onto it in the time available. This was the pick of the short burst of shots, over a 3 second time interval, that I managed to get before it disappeared in front of some trees.

The light was good and I like the way the bird almost seems to be smiling into the camera! It is remarkable that it was sharp enough to crop quite severely, especially as it was near to the top of the frame and well beyond the auto-focus points!