Friday Photo: 14 February

This native bird again, needs no introduction.  It’s the only mainland native pigeon species we have in NZ (the Chatham Islands has a related species).    One of the important roles it plays in native forests is seed dispersal.  Which does make the gradual decline of many populations of kereru a concern.

The basic challenge to photographing this bird in the wild is that it likes being up in the tree canopies.  This means it’s very easy to get photographs of the birds backside, but being on the same level is correspondingly harder.  It also means you’re typically shooting in low light conditions.  That means a slow shutter speed with a big telephoto.

So these shot has been a while in the making.  The kereru is feeding on a cabbage tree and I’ve got a vantage point that is both at the same level, and close to the bird.  No need to do any aggressive cropping of the shot.

click for larger, higher res image

Hope everybody enjoys the end of their week.  I’m going to be on a high-volume espresso diet I think, to make it to the end of the day…