An incredible bird

This is a sunbittern I photographed in the Pantanal region of Brazil. When this bird is wading in the shallows of a river, its brown coloration brown is quite unremarkable. Boring, to be honest. As soon as it takes flight, though, the colors and the incredible pattern are beautiful. I took this shot with a 500mm telephoto, thus the original background was defined but out of focus. I didn't like it, so I replaced the background with a section of the river where the bird had been feeding. My settings for the bird-in-flight capture were 1/3200, f/7.1, and 3200 ISO. The reason I Iead tours to the Pantanal in November and December is because this is the beginning of the rainy season. Clouds mostly cover the sky providing the ideal kind of lighting -- soft and diffused. During the peak season for tourism, which is summer, the harsh overhead sun makes photography a serious challenge. The ratio of good images taken in November versus July is 10:1.