As a child, I spent a number of years in the tropics and I remember the macaw as a gorgeous and smart bird. They can also be loud! Len was able to spend about 2 1/2 hours capturing the macaw in flight. Here are the photos he sent to share. His story is at the end.
My first thought is that this is a lot of photos of just one kind of bird. Then I really looked at each one. They are not the same!! Each one highlights a special beauty of this special bird.
Here is Len's story. "My trip to Costa Rica was wonderful because of the birds but I also had a chance to try new techniques with my photography. One day we went to a ranch that has free flying Macaws. We had a wonderful lunch there but also had a chance to see wild macaws in flight. The objective was to get flight pictures. The rancher loves his wild macaws and has taught them to fly to him towards him. Their reward is peanuts in the shell. We were positioned on the side of a hill. The macaws hang out in a tall tree at the top of the hill and the rancher went to another tree at the bottom of the hill. He would then call in Spanish " Macaw Macaw" repeatedly. Some times the Macaws would come sometimes they wouldn't. We spent about 2 1/2 hours trying to get pictures of the macaws in flight.
We set our cameras in Manuel Mode and our lens in Auto Focus. We used high ISO, multiple exposure and fast shutter speeds. We were hand holding our cameras. We were told that if we able to get a few pictures in focus we would be doing very well. I am an old duck hunter so I was able to understand leading the birds. I am sure with more practice it would get better but it was sure fun with such beautiful subjects."
Thanks so much for sharing Len. May you have many more birding trips!