I have been trying to capture a Cape Sugarbird in flight, preferably a male in breeding finery with a long tail. Spent the early morning out at my favourite site for sugarbirds and sunbirds. The site has a New Zealand Flax plant which attract the sunbirds and sugarbirds when in flower. The only disadvantage of the site is that is is on the opposite side a small stream that has a steeply sloping bank so I cannot get close. I took a number of images of the birds on the plant and finally, after a few years’ of attempts, managed to capture a few images of one in flight – fortunately a male with a long tail.
Cape Sugarbird (Promerops cafer).
Fancourt, George, Western Cape Province, South Africa.
Canon R1 with Canon RF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Handheld
ISO 2500. 1/1250 sec @ f/5.6. Exposure set manually.
This image is of a male that was moving from one set of flowers to one higher up on the New Zeland Flax plant, with wings outstretched. I really liked the pose with the feather detail prominent.
The same bird then decided to fly to an adjoining stalk on the plant. Still did not regard this as a full flight shot. But things were looking promising. Camera settings were all the same as above.
Cape Sugarbird (Promerops cafer). Female.
Canon R5 Mark II with Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and Canon EF 1.4 III Extender.
The male that was flitting about was accompanied by a female. They had moved to another plant so I changed cameras and lenses. Fortunately the sun was shining on the bird and stalk but not the background. Hence the marked contrast
Canon R1 with Canon RF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM lens and Canon RF 1.4x extender. Handheld.
ISO 1600. 1/4000 sec @f/5.6. Exposure set manually.
The male had now moved to a bare stalk on the plant when I captured the above image. It shows off the tail length very well, which I estimated to be about four times its body length. I was now hoping for a take-off and some flight.
At last. The male took off and was flying away as I managed to capture the two images above. The camera and settings were still the same and fortunately the background was uncluttered. I would have liked to have got the entire tail in clear focus but whilst the bird and the first part of the tail was parallel to the plane of focus of the camera, the end bit of the tail was not quite parallel. The wing tips were also somewhat out of the depth of focus at an aperture of f/5.6 with a 400mm lens and a 1.4x extender on it. The second of the flight shots was much better in these respects. The two images were separated by 20 milliseconds! My perseverance had finally paid off.