Gloria Grandolini
March 2025 - Snake Bird
About the Image(s)
This is an Oriental Darter drying its wings. Its nickname is snakebird. It is a water bird of tropical South East Asia. To feed itself it impales fish underwater with the long beak. I took this image last November in the Keoladeo Park in Rajasthan, India. The same park where the storks where. These birds, just like Cormorants, like to perch upright on a rock or a branch to dry their wings. I feel lucky I was able to get one posing for me at a relatively close distance.
Shot with Canon R5 handheld.
200 m (RF 70-200 f 2.8 L IS USM)
1/125 sec at f/22 ISO 500.
I used Lightroom denoise to enhance the sharpness a bit and adjusted whites and blacks.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted
Gloria, the bird is known as the anhinga in the US and this is a male. It has their characteristic pose with open wings and facing the sun to dry the feathers since they have no oil glands to make the feathers waterproof. They are excellent underwater fishers. Also the pose is very elegant with the neck twisted and head looking the other way. The image is sharp. Posted: 03/09/2025 11:15:51
Thanks Isaac - it is indeed a very elegant bird. Posted: 03/17/2025 08:58:17
Nice capture of this snake bird. Loved the elegant pose with fanning of the tail feathers. Sharpness in critical areas with a nice crop and complimentary background. Posted: 03/10/2025 18:41:57
Thank you Kathy Posted: 03/17/2025 08:57:45
Nice sharp focused image with an " elegant " pose. Nicely executed with an out of focus background. Posted: 03/19/2025 07:21:01
Gloria - This is a lovely image of your snake bird which I know as Anhinga. Nicely cropped and balanced to define the drying feather ends- their texture sharply in contrast to its fuzzy/furry-looking neck - all offset by your soft background. One suggestion would be to slightly lighten the stump and the bird's feet - although too much lightening might draw attention from the overall bird body. See my suggested image edit - I did have to spot erase a bright spot at the bottom of the stump to retain your crop. But otherwise I just used the brush tool in Lightroom Classic to do a very gentle lift of exposure + shadows for your consideration. Posted: 03/24/2025 22:39:08