Suckling the morning feast

[Prajwal J Ullal]

ID: Common small flat butterfly feasting on the Bushkiller flower

Like previously shared post, these bushkillers are the best sight naturalists would like to see, especially the flowering ones as they turn out to be the best spot to frame a huge variety of insects and particularly butterflies, be it the tiny blues family or the mammoth-ish(in comparison to the blues) Jays. In this particular instance this beautiful Common Small Flat decided to utilize basking itself in the penetrating sun’s rays and all of a sudden hopped onto the flower to feast over it. Even though it didn’t seem to be comfortable with me and especially the firing of the flash/sound of the mirror, but it came back onto the flower and eventually continued sipping the nectar and didn’t fly off. With capturing of this frame, I decided to stop pestering and spoiling its early morning routine of this angel and moved out for it to continue energizing itself.
Am curious if these skippers/flats are too sensitive to light or sound as have witnessed them flying off once a frame is captured.

EXIF:
Canon 80D
Canon 100mm macro
F/11
Shutterspeed 1/200
ISO 500
Handheld, External flash fired

Location: Nagla Trail

[Mrudul Godbole]

This angle shows how it sips the nectar, with the tube visible and in good focus. Good details on the frontal area. Nice capture. Thanks for sharing the detailed behaviour. Look forward to more.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Agree with Mrudul's comments. Though the structure of eyes of insects and animals are different than us, the sudden burst of light through the flash at close range is unnerving for most. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi