Indian Flying Fox (silhouette)

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

My first mammal post here(!) Also my first photograph of a bat. Taken from my terrace (Mumbai) at 6:55 pm. Unfortunately just a silhouette...:(

Flying foxes and fruit bats (the megabat family), unlike the insectivorous microbats, are herbivores, have fairly good eyesight and don't use echolocation.

From the book of Indian Animals, S.H. Prater:
The Indian flying foxes, the largest Indian bats, are commonly seen roosting in noisy colonies in trees by day, and leave to forage at dusk. Labeled as a pest in some parts because it destroys orchards, steps have even been taken to eradicate them; these steps however have been unsuccessful. The meat is considered a delicacy in some parts.

Camera Model Name Canon PowerShot SX10 IS
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/200
Av (Aperture Value) 5.7
ISO Speed 200
Cropped to around 40% or so. No major PP changes.

Any tips on how to get better photographs of these?

Thanks for looking, C&C welcome...

[AB Apana]

Since the bat is small in the frame the camera will expose for the sky, you need to add light, overexpose here to try and get detail in the bat.

I'm a little curious about the f5.7, is it a typo or is it really the aperture?

Apana

[Mrudul Godbole]

Agree with Apana about the exposure. There is noise because of the crop. Thanks for the information.

Look forward to more mammal photographs from you..

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Apana F5.7 is really the aperture... not a typo.
Thanks both for the comments.
Hardly ever take any mammal photos since it's a long time since I went to a mammal hotspot. I expect I'll get some this winter on my college zoology field trip...

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The aperture ie. the lens opening is denoted in terms of f stops like f1.4, f2, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22.....

ie. they numbers increase by a square root of 2 which is 1.414

Some of these compact cameras report it as 5.7 instead of f5.6