We had a few days in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year on the long cruise (it was Rio Carnival time which was an experience!) - we went to their huge (and old) Botanical Gardens in search of wildlife - we weren't disappointed. We can across a family of these toucans very high within the old trees (800mm wasn't enough!) and it was very dark so ISO was huge - but we found this chap much lower down. I was lucky that he displayed nicely for me to take this. They are wild and visit the gardens to feed on the berries. They can be found from the very southern Caribbean islands and northern part of S America. I have posted pictures of Marmosets in this month's Nature Group 72 if interested - taken in the same Rio gardens. This was taken with a 100-400mm Olympus lens at 300mm (so FF 600) at 1/400 f6.3 ISO 5,000. PP all in Lightroom.
2 comments posted
Steve Cole
I envy your travels and thanks for sharing this beautiful bird. Processing high ISO can be challenging but with today's software it makes a bit easier. Overall nice rendering of the capture. :)
Posted: 10/03/2026 18:40:59
Jerry Biddlecom
As Steve notes, this is a nice capture of this unique bird. Your camera seems to handle the high ISO quite well. Exposure good and color could perhaps use just a bit more saturation. I like the old tree limb leading from the right toward the bird, which then is looking back. The pose makes for a well balanced composition. My only observation -- of course my preference -- is that the background, with all of the light spots, is somewhat cluttered. Select out the bird and the branch and then blur and darken the back? Posted: 10/08/2026 18:32:09
