My bird submission is of the Egyptian Geese in the wild and they are in a territorial battle which I describe as a “Dog fight”.
Egyptian Geese are very aggressive and territorial.
Aggressive and Territorial: They fiercely protect their nesting sites and territory, often chasing away or attacking other birds, animals, and even humans who get too close. Breeding Season:
Their aggression spikes significantly during mating and nesting season, where males (ganders) can become especially vicious and mean. Combative Nature: They frequently engage in physical fights with other birds and water fowl, using wing knobs and biting to dominate their space.
Nikon camera with 200-500 lens at 5.6 1/400 sec. Post processing in PS . One can see the Hippos in the back ground
4 comments posted
Dr Isaac Vaisman
Gerhard, obviously it is not a friendly interaction. Males when they are guarding their ladies and territory, can get very agressive as we can see in this image. The geese on the left with the wing stretched is taking a bite on the other. Nice non distracting background. Posted: 10/01/2026 14:54:09
Doug Fischer
I wished you had taken it a bit faster. It action seems a bit blurred at 1/400. But it a nice capture of the birds behavior or is it misbehavior? It took me some time to figure who is doing what to who in the image. But I am old and slow. Posted: 10/03/2026 02:04:33
Grace Cohen
You've captured this species demonstrating the very aggressive behavior for which it's known. This is an intense action shot. Doug mentioned shutter speed and I agree that your image could have been more impactful if shot at a higher shutter speed. You may be able to mask the birds and make adjustments to gain a bit of sharpness in post processing.
Since I often shoot birds in flight (and there's no time to make adjustments once they take off), I have a CUSTOM SETTING programmed into my camera just for shooting birds. That includes shutter speed set at 1/3200. Even at that speed, I sometimes wish I'd pushed to 1/4000. Posted: 10/06/2026 00:53:01
Gerhard Geldenhuys
Sorry my mistake. The photo was taken at 1/4000 second. Posted: 10/06/2026 05:05:54
