Male Shikra with kill

[Mrudul Godbole]

This was captured a few months back in the backyard of my house in Bangalore. I saw a big bird scooping down and then heard lot of noises from the squirrels. I rushed out with my camera and just got 3 shots before it flew away with the prey. Couldn't avoid the box and the pipe.

Canon 50D, Canon 100-400mm L IS USM, ISO 400, 1/200, f6.3, hand held, cropped to remove the pipe on the right.

Comments and critiques welcome..

[Prasad Dingankar]

Nice anticipation... In my opinion & since its a crop... Bit more tighter crop would have removed the entire off focus pipe from the frame..

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I think retaining all the pipes and other junk is fine. It gives an idea that even in the urban jungle, these birds can try to hunt. I have often seen Shikra in trees close to human habitations. Watching it catch a squirrel is nice. Great catch. The red eye has come fantastic.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice image taken with quick reflection of mind.
Bangalore....from the city of gardens to an unplanned concrete city, from making finest machine tools and watches to operating millions of keyboards.......Transformation,the way one chooses to take.
Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Nice image Mrudul. The red eye looks nice. The box gives the idea of the size of the bird which is fine. Had it chewed off the squirrel's head by the time you clicked? Thanks for sharing.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Thanks all for the comments.

Saktiji, I agree Bangalore has changed a lot in the past few years and the effect can be seen on the climate, which is becoming hot from the quiet and cool city it used to be :(.

Murugan, It had just caught it and it flew to this side. I did not see him in the garden where I had seen it flying down. I think it was about to start eating, when I suddenly reached the spot, so it gave one look at me and immediately took off. I thought it had flown off and didn't expect it to be here, else I would have approached quietly :(.