Hamerkop

[Overread]

Taken at Africa Alive (Kesingland Zoo)
Canon 7D + Sigma 120-300mm f2.8

This little bird spent a good while picking up leaves and dunking them in the water and seemed very happy with this; even carrying them around a bit before bringing them back to the water. The species is said to build nests up to 1.8m wide so my guess is that wet leaves are a good construction material (the pen didn't have any massive nest within it sadly).

The pen did have some thick wire which is sadly affecting the photo; even with a few adjustments to contrast and saturation (blue channel) its still got a colour fade (esp across the top of the bird). Anyone with any experience care to lend a hand in getting an editing method that removes this problem totally from this shot?


As always any comments or crits are welcome.

 

[Advanced Photo]

Yeah, that's the virtually invisible wires shot.

Nice pose caught. Seems everyone likes making tea.

 

[ZombiesniperJr]

Nice shot

 

[Overread]

Thanks both
AP - yep that's the wire just cutting through enough to be a pain. Sadly many avian pens are very much alike with thick wire and often smaller spaces so that subjects have only a few areas near the back (wire in the background) where they can really get far enough for the lens to focus past the wire fully .