Great Pied Hornbill

[Mrudul Godbole]

Happy New Year to All.

Photographed this a day before the New Year. My first sighting of the Hornbill :), thanks to Sabyasachi. It was late in the evening and the light was getting bad. Saw this perched high up on the tree.

Canon 50D, 100-400mm L IS USM, ISO 400, f6.3, 1/500, hand held.

Comments and Critiques welcome..

[V S Sankar]

Great picture Mrudul.Nice pose and sharpness.

Happy new year to as well.

Regards

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Lovely lighting. Nice image. The eye looks good. It is good that you got nearly the entire body in the clear. May we hear the "swoosh" the sound of their wing beats forever. They are poached - especially vulnerable when the female is inside the nest during the nesting period. Also cutting down old growth trees, fruit bearing trees is another major issue.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Great Sighting to begin the New Year Mrudul, HNY to you as well. The great hornbills are rare to find and always perched high up in dense forest. The light is soft and nice. The details and colors have come out well. I feel there some blr in eye, were you hand holding?

Last week we were trekking in Joida Forest, and we sighted two Malabar Pied Great Hornbills, unfortunately I could not photograph as they flew away:(, have never been lucky with these till date.

Was this photographed in Annamalai Wildlife Sanctuary?
tfs

[Bibhav Behera]

Congrats Mrudul and Sabyasachi on the Sighting... Valparai is a magical place. Just the sight of these majestic giants moving through the air like B-52 bombers with the swoosh swoosh of their wings is a delight...
Congrats on a nice catch. Thanks for sharing. Look forward to more :)

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Its part of the Parambikulam buffer. A part of our project is educating the tribals in protecting these birds.

[Tushar Dixit]

Nice capture, Mrudul! My first encounter with them was interesting. We were on a jungle path in Amboli and something just flew over my head making this huge noise (you need to hear it to believe it!). I didn't know that hornbill flight is noisy then and was actually scared :) It's a magnificent bird and must be protected at all costs...

[Satishchandra Ranadive]

This is too Good...Lovely.

[Dr. Kalpamoi Kakati]

Nice head turn & eye contact.A lower angle would have been nice.TFS