Remember the time when we all used to read the tagline - Is it a bird, is it a plane - Noooo - it's SUPERMAN! and gaze up, hoping to see Superman?
Now, when we gaze upwards, we hope to see a mighty eagle or a rare bird instead of Superman, we realize that our transition from a DC Comics Nerd to a Birding nerd is complete 😂
I am no exception to this rule and though I am a photographer at heart and believe in taking bird pics only with a nice green background, I can not hide my excitement when I see a bird flying high overhead.
Luckily, with my 500mm lens, I am able to capture some nice pictures and identify the birds instead of just enjoying far-away silhouettes !
Some times silhouettes or partial silhouettes are beautiful too. Here is one my favorite ones in which the lovely shape of wings of the hornbill is seen with a very translucent quality of the feathers in the early morning light. From this picture, I also noted for the first time that Hornbills have long eyebrows !! This, therefore is my entry for the contest.
Silhouett of a Hornbill overhead - My entry for #SMaP 127
I have been lucky a few times to see raptors floating by. They do not even flap their wings and seem to glide so effortlessly. I click them and envy them at the same time! 😀
An example is this mighty Bonelli's eagle :
This mighty hunter looks fearsome even as he floats calmly overhead. The intense gaze is always on the lookout for prey.
Black shouldered kite, on the other hand, almost looks like an angle in white as it hovers directly overhead...
If we are lucky, this is one of the easiest birds to capture in flight because, many times, it hovers in one place in the sky, looking down for prey.
Birds flying in flocks have their on grandeur. Just the sheer number and their flying in formation is worth noticing...
Though it is difficult to get individual birds details in such flock pictures, they still form an interesting subject.
I was lucky to see more than 100 flamingoes in flight high overhead and captured this shot..
These flamingoes travel thousands of miles and they ensure that all the flock members make the journey safely. If one of them gets injured and has to land, a team member stays back to keep company. They rejoin the flock when the injured member gets strong enough to fly.
While flying too, they take turns in flying in the lead of the V formation because that position takes maximum effort.
Amazing teamwork - isn't it ?
Apart from noticing the beauty of flying birds -
Birds flying high always remind me that "Sky is NO limit - Just trust your wings"
I think this message is worth spreading. A positivity that we can get free of cost in our lives...
That is all I have today to say on this wonderful challenge for bird lovers as well as photographers! What do you think? Do you like the pics and agree on my views 😀? Please feel free to share your comments and opinions.
A big thank you for support
Thanks to c/hive-106444 (Feathered friends community) for providing this wonderful opportunity to present my experience and photographs. Thanks to @barbara-orenya and @melinda010100 for all the support and encouragement to this community. Special thanks to @nelinoeva also for the wonderful contest and Author of the week initiatives.
Thanks to HIVE for this wonderful platform. Thanks also to @adalger and @dna.org for encouraging me by recognizing some of my posts as worthy of Densifying nature project.
Further, thanks to Amazing nature community for welcoming me and showing me their love on some of my posts.
Note: All images and collages in this blog are created by me, based on photos clicked by me personally and/or free vector images from Pixabay. Any other sources, if used, are indicated as image credits below the picture.
Quotes used, if not credited, are either from unknown authors or are proverbial old sayings.
