Purple Heron in flight

A Purple Heron glides over dense vegetation as it comes in to land at one of the ponds in Candaba wetlands. Despite the featured background and the incoming flight trajectory, my 1D MII’s AF had no trouble catching the target.

Light was not as bright as I wish for birds in flight, and I was forced to slow down the shutter speed to 1/640 sec at the risk of camera  shake or subject motion. I got lucky in panning and the feather detail turned out decently sharp.

These large birds (length of 1.145 m and wingspan of 1.90 m) are fairly common residents all over our islands, and they are a guaranteed catch at Candaba wetlands at any time of the year. They are so slow in the air that I sometimes refer to them as ships-in-flight.

My website’s banner photo above is a composite of 5 frames from a burst at this species.

__________

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea, resident)

Habitat – Fairly common in all types of wetlands.

Shooting Info – Candaba wetlands, Pampanga, Philippines, April 10, 2007, Canon 1D MII + EF 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC II, 700 mm, f/6.3, ISO 400, 1/640 sec, manual exposure in available light, 475B/3421 support.

A short video of the Purple Heron fimed in-habitat at Candaba wetlands while in flight, hunting and feeding.