Wamboin, NSW, Australia.
Tags: White-throated Needletail Hirundapus caudacutus Australian Birds Birds Wamboin NSW Australia FBW:NewBird FBW:added kookr
Wamboin, NSW, Australia.
Tags: White-throated Needletail Hirundapus caudacutus Wamboin NSW Australia David Cook Wildlife Photography kookr Sony SLT-A77V Sony SAL-70400G © 2012 David Cook Wildlife Photography. All Rights Reserved.
Wamboin, NSW, Australia.
Whilst looking for Chestnut-rumped Heathwrens at a nearby sub-division yesterday (see previous photos), there were probably more than 100 White-throated Needletails flying around overhead, and occasionally coming down low (not this one though, it was way up). I took many, many photos, hoping for a good one or two, but they're just so hard to photograph. Going through them just now I found this one, mouth agape just about to hoover up an insect of some description - not a sight you see every day! They fly past like little fighter planes, and their wings make a real swooshing sound - they're actually quite big, with a wingspan of about half a metre.
My technique is to put the camera into 12 frames-per-second mode ("machine gun" mode, I call it), set the camera to focus priority (won't fire until something is in focus), zoom the lens to 400mm, AF mode to Area (normally I use Spot AF for birds), dial out EV to about +2 (depends on the amount of cloud/light), Continuous AF, then hold the shutter button down when one of them comes close enough and fire off a blast of several rapid shots. My lens can keep reasonable focus for the several frames, and hopefully there may be one or 2 keepers. Seemed to work OK for these bullets.
Tags: White-throated Needletail Hirundapus caudacutus Wamboin NSW Australia David Cook Wildlife Photography kookr Sony SLT-A77V Sony SAL-70400G © 2012 David Cook Wildlife Photography. All Rights Reserved.
Wamboin, NSW, Australia.
Another shot of a needletail feeding on insects - the mouth is open here and it has the insect in its sights.
Tags: White-throated Needletail Hirundapus caudacutus Wamboin NSW Australia David Cook Wildlife Photography kookr Sony SLT-A77V Sony SAL-70400G © 2012 David Cook Wildlife Photography. All Rights Reserved.
Julatten, Queensland, Australia.
Tags: Australian Swiftlet Aerodramus terraereginae Aerodramus terraereginae terraereginae Julatten Queensland Australia David Cook Wildlife Photography kookr Sony A9 Sony ILCE-9 Sony SEL-100400GM Sony 1.4x TC SEL14TC © 2021 David Cook Wildlife Photography. All Rights Reserved.