White-eye against the blue sky

These tiny dynamos are tough enough to capture when they are perched or foraging in fruiting trees.

When one takes  to air, given its unpredictable flight trajectory,  the degree of difficulty of acquiring the microscopic subject, keeping it in the viewfinder and maintaining good focus is multiplied several fold. Let's not even talk about nailing the exposure - i.e., avoiding over exposure of the white eye ring.

That wouldn't keep me though  from trying to catch these in flight. 

Most of my attempts wouldn't even result into a shutter press, as often the bird has passed me before I have a chance to acquire it in the viewfinder. But this fine Saturday morning, while birding along the banks of the Bued River, I  got lucky and managed to get one in the air, with reasonably good exposure. Thanks to the 7D MII's wide AF net (all-points AI servo) and the 400 DO II's responsive auto focus, the erratically flying target was caught with decent detail even if it was very small in the frame.

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

Habitat - Second growth, scrub and gardens. 

Shooting info - Bued River, Rosario, La Union, Philippines, September 10, 2016, EOS 7D MII + EF 400 F/4 DO IS II,
400 mm, f/5.0, ISO 320, 1/2000 sec, hand held, manual exposure in available light, major crop resized to 800 x 533.

  1200 x 800 version