Crimson Sunbird split the prey

[Kiran Ghadge]

Shot this too near Pune in Mulshi area...
Canon 50d + Canon 100-400mm
1/800 Sec F5.6 ISO 800 1EV

[Mrudul Godbole]

Wow..!! Lovely moment captured. The colours and sharpness is perfect.

Seems your Mulshi trip paid off. Look forward to more..

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Ohh Boy!

What a capture!

You have clicked in the right moment. It looks like those martial artists who cut down a flying object with their swords. Action at its best. I am delighted.

This is a male. Scientific name: Aethopyga siparaja. According to Inskipp & Grimmett the size of the bird is 11 cm.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Bibhav Behera]

This is nothing short of a masterpiece Kiran. Great Job...

BTW saw one of ur images in this month's edition of Better Photography... :) congrats...

[Sagar Patil]

What a color, composition, clarity, action..!! Everything is there, a picture perfect.

Please I request you to invite me for next session around Pune in this month or next. I will try my best to come.

[AB Apana]

Very well done image Kiran. It does justice to this lovely bird.

Apana

[Rajan Kanagasabai]

Brilliant - to say the least. Was it a burst or a single shot ?

regards
Rajan

[Kiran Ghadge]

@all Thanks
@ Sagar, Sure I will let you know....
@ Rajan : Yes burst mode, in the next frame I got, the bird is in air with open beak and catching the part which is in air...its not sharp so didn't process that
@ Bibhav : Thanks man.. Its like I have signed contract with them :) They are printing my image every month now....In their last 3 issues they have printed some 5-6 photos. and they have already taken one for soming issue.... till date they have printed some 10-12 images... good for me :)

[Kartikeya Puri]

Hi Kiran,

This is an absolutely beautiful capture of "the Kill". One of the best images I have seen so far. :-)

Cheers,
Kartik

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This is a question to all of you birders. How often you find these guys feeding on insects?

I haven seen them sucking nectar doing justice to their curved beak, but haven't seen them catching, and splicing insects in mid air.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Kiran Ghadge]

Good Question Sabyasachi... In general I have seen other sunbird sucking nectar.

The crimson sunbird was first timer for me, not sure though.. this is what Wikipedia says "The Crimson Sunbird, Aethopyga siparaja, is a sunbird. The sunbirds are a group of very small Old World passerine birds which feed largely on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young"

[Chitrita Chatterjee]

fabulous..... beautiful capture.... sharp image.... stunning colors... and above all the action.... almost real time...
congratulations on getting this brilliant shot.... and thanks for sharing this with us...
look forward to many more such pics....

[Usha Harikrishnan]

Kiran.. This is absolutely brilliant... Wow... Stunning colours, superb picture clarity & a fantastic theme !! Would love to see more pics coming ...:) I must say this... You have captured nature at its very best...

[Lakshminarayanan Nataraja]

A very good portrait. Especially the subject being sunbird which seldom sustains its perch...

Sunbirds do feed on insects and spiders besides nectar. (Source: Dr. Salim Ali's The Book of Indian birds).

Thank you.

Lakshminarayanan

[Anup Ranadive]

Top Class Image

[Swapnil Dighe]

What a lovely image.

I never knew that sun bird existed in crimson colour as well.

Very good shot.

Swapnil Dighe