Malabar Pied Hornbill (Female)

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Shot this Malabar Pied Hornbill on 24th Dec'09 at Dandeli, about 70 kms from my home town Belgaum. I was even lucky to sight the Great Hornbills, but they were too far and kept them as records shots.

Female Hornbills have White and Black around the eye, while males have reddish eyes.

Camera Model Name Canon EOS 40D
Shooting Date/Time 12/24/2009 7:45:28 AM
Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/2000
Av (Aperture Value) 5.6
ISO 500

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Looks like the light was not in your favour here. Good shot nevertheless. Photographing it at eye level would have been lovely (of course that is not something you can help). Is the noise due to ISO 500?
I too had my 1st (and so far my only) Great Hornbill sightings at Dandeli... In my case they were not very far off... the problem was I didn't have a camera then :-P

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Abhishek;
Not carrying a camera is a criminal offence. ;)

I think the subject was far off and was underexposed. Pulling up the shadows during post processing results in noise. Nice sighting. I wish the bird was closer.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Ahiraj Bhat]

Nice Shot ..

which part of dandeli did you sight this?

As far as i know these birds can be sighted very frequently on the Banks of Kali River. The best place to try luck is moulangi ( a village just 7 kms from the town). :)
I am from Dandeli. Thanks for reminding my home town :)

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Ahiraj I spotted this on the bank of Kali, shot this from coracle, I stayed there at Jungle lodges and resorts, however next day I sighted few more hornbills near the forest office we actually took a long walk but the problem was the hornbills were perched high up on trees.

I had good birding at Ganeshgudi, few days ago i shared image of Blue Capped Rock thrush that was created at Ganeshgudi.

Glad to know you are from Dandeli

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice image. Its good that you got the eye in the clear.
Its quite difficult to photograph birds perched on high trees with the sky in the BG. You could have checked the histogram to see if the graph was more to the left, and so tried increasing the exposure.

Yet to photograph these species :(. Seems have to go to Dandeli for that.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Abhishek;
Not carrying a camera is a criminal offence. ;)
Sabyasachi, I was 11 years old then :D

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Sabyasachi, I was 11 years old then :D

hmmm.... :o You are learning fast, so I tend to forget your age. :D

[Bibhav Behera]

The composition is nice. Agree about the noise due to pulling out detail from the shadows.. :)