It's winter here, normally bright sunny blue sky days, and the only chance I get to go out and shoot for the challenge, it's overcast. Typical! This is one of a few of our endemic species that is still colourful at this time of year. Incredibly shy and tiny bird. Image shot in overcast conditions hand held after a day birding in the bush. Up at 4 am and home at 7pm. Background is water coloured grey from the difficult photographic conditions. Every time he caught a fish he would land in dense foliage out of reach of my crispest and fastest birding lens; the Sigma 100-300mm f/4 EX IF HSM.
This sub-adult Malachite Kingfisher (Alcedo cristata) is a mostly river (and dam) kingfisher which is widely distributed in Africa south of the Sahara. It is largely resident except for seasonal climate related movements.
They are 13 cm (5") in length and about 13 grams. The general colour of the upper parts of the adult bird is bright metallic blue. The head has a short crest of black and blue feathers, which gives rise to the scientific name.
Day 1: Votes: 8 Avg Vote: 7.2500 !!!
Day 1: Votes: 13 Avg Vote: 7.9231 !!!
Then plummeted 0.8675 on the weekend :(
Day 3: Votes: 72 Avg Vote: 7.0556
by Monday morning...
Day 5 Votes: 77 Avg Vote: 7.0000
by Thursday evening it had slipped beyond the 7 and my hopes for a HM or Top Ten were again dashed for a wild bird image...
ETA:
Thank you for all the wonderful comments and votes, inc. Richard Hahn hahn23 who without knowing the species, did a sterling Inspector Clouseau. It is encouraging to see that many voters understood the effort required to find and snap these little guys and get a decent image...
Note that DPC does not have a Wildlife Site Gallery section, only Nature & Nature is any animal shot in non-wild (captive) locations including Zoo's, Aviaries, Sanctuaries & your pet Polly at home! Genuine wildlife images should have their own category.
Time to start lobbying Langdon :P
Statistics
Place: 11 out of 110 Avg (all users): 6.8390 Avg (commenters): 9.0000 Avg (participants): 6.6875 Avg (non-participants): 6.9429 Views since voting: 2092 Views during voting: 274 Votes: 118 Comments: 17 Favorites: 1 (view)
Wonderful kingfisher, but not a species we would see in North America. Great colors, focus, sharpness, clarity and composition. Bumping the score now, because I have identified this magnificent birds as a Malachite Kingfisher, Alcedo cristata. I expect this to be a ribbon contender. 10
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