Oriental Honey Buzzard- doing what it does best!

[Aditya Panda]

A most amazing sighting! An Oriental Honey Buzzard raids honey from a hive ridden with bees in Pench. One hardly expects a bird of prey to have such tastes! I was bored with the lack of action that morning and was driving the Gypsy myself for entertainment, having almost given up all hope when, quite late in the day, we came upon this guy. It was fun to park right under it and watch its antics.

PENTAX K 10D
PENTAX SMC DA* 300mmF4 ED(IF) SDM
'Av' Mode
Tv: 1/1250 sec
Av: f/4
Exposure compensation: +0.3 Ev
Sensitivity: ISO 400
Metering: Spot Metering

Cheers,
Aditya

[Sagar Patil]

Marvelous view.
What a focus and timing..!!

One silly Q : Why need to spread wing span? For balance? (Seeing this bird first time)

[Aditya Panda]

Yes Sagar, the wings have been spread for balance. Sometimes the bird would also take support of one the branches to rest its wing on in order to have a secure grip.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Aditya,
Lovely. This is a great find. Nice behaviour captured. One doesn't come across this scene often - neither in wild nor in bird books.

It looks like a gymnast balancing on a wire with a pole on hand for balance. I like the details in the wings and underparts. The bees flying below it adds to the image.

Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Kiran Ghadge]

Rare one...best images.. thanks for sharing

[AB Apana]

Great image! TFS! Never seen this before.

Apana

[Murugan Anantharaman]

lovely moment captured!!

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Simply marvellous to the last detail.