Darter Lake!

I've been seeing this oriental darter/ snakebird at yere katte in bandipur for more than 6 months now!
The bird will be perched on one of the two large trees there and I've seen it during all safaris I did in bandipur since december 2010....
I do not know why the water hole was named yere katte, but now I know that there is enough reason to re-name it as 'darter katte':)

f5.6,1/125sec, ISO 640, EV 0. focal length 330mm.
canon 60D, canon 100-400 L ISf4.5-5.6 USM

The darters or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae.
The darters have completely webbed feet, and their legs are short and set far back on the body. The webbed feet can be seen in the image..

Nice one. This is an uncommon angle for a darter shot :). Not many images in which the webbed feet are visible. Nice details. I have always found the darter's wing feathers very photogenic :). There is some noise, possibly due to the high ISO. How much of a crop is this?
TFS

If you were shooting at 330 mm, then why do you need a crop? Was the 330 mm focal length accidental?

This needed a narrow aperture than f5.6. Unfortunately, light seems to be low. Was it in shade? Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Nice pose and good details on the body.Getting focus on the head or eye of these birds is tough.

TFS
Roopak

Nice eye contact.Exposure & composition is also good.Is it full frame? TFS

Thanks friends. This one is a crop.....the focal length is intentional. I was trying shooting with different compositions at different focal lengths..tried three shots and then there were alarm calls from three different directions (probably a tigress with cubs, Gouri, sothe cubs were on one side and the mother another)..so we decided to let alone the bird and went forward in search of the tigers:( Hence, ended up with the need to crop..

thanks

The perch and the eye contact is nice. I would have liked some more space on the left. Since this is crop, please do post the uncropped version, so we can compare which looks better.
There is lot of flexibility in compositions with 100-400mm, so what I mostly follow is to take photograph with the desired focal length and settings first, and then try different focal lengths or settings if you get more time with the subject later. Thanks for sharing.

Good to see a Darter image from Yere Katte, I haven't it therem except the mangla dam. The uncropped version be look better, agree with comments made.
tfs