You know its summer when you are sitting in the bush and you hear the sound of what seems to be a champagne cork popping every few minutes. But no, it's not actually champagne; it's the mating call of the black-bellied korhaan. The korhaan male will take over a territory and then look for some high ground in his domain.

Sitting on the high ground he will puff himself up, and then, by pulling his neck back, he makes a large champagne bottle popping sound. While this is a fairly plain bird it's still quite striking and makes a good photo subject.

I sat watching this guy perform for a long time and when the sun was just right I set my camera up. 600mm lens, speed 1/4000 of a sec, F5.6, and 800 ISO. By using a fast shutter speed I made sure that I froze the bird and my focus was sharp. I used a shallow depth of field to make sure that everything behind the bird was soft and out of focus.

Happy snapping,

Rod Wyndham

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