Mountain White-eye

At 4-1/4 inches total length, the Mountain White-eye is just a bit longer than its lowland cousin, albeit it is as active and tough to capture. It's a resident bird at higher elevation in most Philippine islands.

I was birding at Mt. Data in 2006, searching for the Mountain Shrike, when a noisy flock of these tiny creatures descended on some flowering shrubs to feed.

One bird suddenly perched upside down on a photogenic flower and started to sip nectar. I had to shoot from the hip, so to speak, to catch the action. My manually set exposure was off by about a stop under, but one of the frames in many short bursts got the subject with a decent pose, catchlight and strong eye contact. Careful post processing work resulted into an image that to me was worth the twelve-hour drive from Metro Manila to the Cordilleras.

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Mountain White-eye (Zosterops montanus)

Habitat - Noisy and active in all forest types above 1000 m.

Shooting info - Elev. 2155 m ASL, Mt. Data, Bauko, Mountain Province, Philippines, November 6, 2006, Canon 20D + EF 500 f/4 IS + Canon 1.4x TC II, 700 mm, f/5.6, ISO 400, 1/320 sec, 475B/3421support, manual exposure in available light, uncropped full frame.

Lowland White-eyes at La Union

These tiny, feathered dynamos were raiding the fruiting "atis" tree (sugar-apple or sweetsop) at my mother's backyard in my native La Union, northern Philippines. For a couple of weeks now, their high-pitched calls served as my alarm clock in the morning.

With a total length of just 4 inches, these very active birds are normally tough to photograph well. But when they descend and feed at a fruiting tree for days on end, there's a lot of opportunities to shoot and this has resulted into a few decent shots.

I had to use higher ISOs in many shots for the faster shutter speeds necessary to freeze these perpetual motion creatures. My preferred focus mode is AI servo AF so the point of focus can continuously keep up with the flitting subject.

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Lowland White-eye (Zosterops meyeni, a near Philippine endemic)

Habitat - Second growth, scrub and gardens.

Shooting info - Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, July 15, 2012, Canon 7D + 400 2.8 IS + Canon 2x TC II, 800 mm, f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1/250 sec, 475B/516 support, manual exposure in available light.



Shooting info - Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, July 22, 2012, Canon 1D MIV + 400 2.8 IS + Canon 2x TC II, 800 mm, f/5.6, ISO 1600, 1/320 sec, 475B/516 support, manual exposure in available light, near full frame.

Footage of a feeding Lowland White-eye.