An ibis in fight

We usually look up at birds from below as they fly past us or perch in trees. It’s unusual to see them at eye level or even to look down on them. That’s why I like this picture of a buff-necked ibis from the Pantanal region of Brazil. From this perspective, we can see the beautiful feathers on the dorsal side of the wings. With a beak like this, a photo of this bird works best when the entire head is seen in profile. If the beak protrudes toward the camera, depth of field becomes a problem. I took this shot with a Canon 500mm f/4 fixed telephoto along with a 1.4x teleconverter giving me 700mm of focal length. The settings were 1/2000, f/16, and 2000 ISO. When I have enough light, I prefer using small lens apertures for birds to insure their entire wing span will be sharp. Usually I use 1/3200 for birds in flight, but some birds, like ibises, flap their wings relatively slowly and you can get away with a slower shutter.