Greater Coucal

[Kaustuv Chatterjee]

One from the archives, shot in Dec, 2013 - The greater coucal is a large bird which takes a wide range of insects, caterpillars and small vertebrates such as the Saw-scaled vipers. They are also known to eat bird eggs, nestlings, fruits and seeds. The bird is associated with many superstitions and beliefs. The deep calls are associated with spirits and omens. In British India, it was noted that new-recruits to India often mistook it for a pheasant and shot it to find it "evil flavoured" giving it the nickname of "Griff's pheasant". The flesh was once eaten as a folk cure for tuberculosis and pulmonary ailments.

Shot with the Nikon D90, Nikkor 300mm + TC14E, at 420 mm, ISO 250 (Auto), 1/500s - F/6.3, -0.3EV

[Debasis Bose]

Beautiful capture. Superb details

[Prasad Dingankar]

Nice capture.. Is that the breez making the background look shakky...

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice to see it perched on the ground in the open. The tail feathers look nice. Did you try a lower angle? Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice capture.. Is that the breez making the background look shakky...

it is the processing.

Love the red eye. Slight head turn and a lower angle would look great. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Kaustuv Chatterjee]

Actually its the 300 mm prime lens non VR + TC 1.4 that creates these 'blurred waves / streaks' ....don't know if other face it too....I try to apply Gaussian blur by a factor of 1.2-1.8 depending on the shot, to soften its effect....