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Black Bellied Korhaan

on Dec 16, 2014

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.

Korhaanbig

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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