If you are an eagle fan and think that there are masses of White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) on the Volga or even think that Brandenburg is densely populated with this bird species, you really have to go to the Lunugamvehera National Park in the south of Sri Lanka. Such a density of large fish-eating eagles like here at the Weheragala Reservoir I have really never seen before. Well, the White-bellied Fish-Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) is not as powerful as the White-tailed Eagle; the weight is also much lower (max. 4 kg against over 7 kg). However, the wingspan is almost as impressive with over 2 meters. The White-tailed Eagle is of course also a little larger. The most impressive thing about this early morning is the rather slow back and forth flight of individual White-bellied Sea-eagles against a green jungle background. Again and again a White-bellied Sea-eagle flies in and then disappears into an old giant tree right next tot he dam. Great flight pictures with a beautiful background.
One reason for perfect shooting is the excellent position on a 25 meter high dam, where the White-bellied Sea-eagle flies along at almost the same height like you are standing. On the other hand the high yield in images is due to the rather low demands on the focusing technique. The auto-focus on the Canon EOS 1 DX has enough time to focus on the flying target. The contrast range is so high that the bright bird is perfectly captured in front of the dark green background, although the depth of field of the Canon EF 600/4.0 L IS II USM is low. Scrap – otherwise high within flight photos (BiF) – is almost non-existent with this series. For quite again and again another immature White-bellied Continue reading White-bellied Fish-Eagle in Yala NP