Rainbow Bee Eaters

[CMunzel]

I've been practicing capturing birds in flight using the continuous focus setting on my NIkon 850. Rainbow Bee Eaters live on bees and they are spectacular to watch catch bees in the air swooping in acrobatic flight. 

[Clicker]

What fabulous colours Cheryl ... they certainly are aptly named aren’t they ?  You’ve done a super job getting the detail in focus  too .... it is  the only way I  have any chance of  getting maybe one decent image in each  continuous burst if I’m lucky ..
 How many frames per second can you get with you camera ...    see Fogey gave details on his Air brakes  pic  of how he managed his  capture .. I love it when people share  the” how I did it “ thing with us all . It saves  some of us the embarrassment  of asking ..

[CMunzel]

Thanks Polly.
They are gorgeous looking birds. I look forward to their arrival from up north every Spring.

They nest in burrows in the sandy soil which is found in patches around here, including the isolated bush cemetery nearby.

 I spend many hours on weekends wandering amongst the graves of my parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles, and other local people with my camera trying to capture the Rainbow Bee Eaters, and other birds that enjoy the native bush in the cemetery. (I have attached a photo of the cemetery below so you can see what it looks like). 
My camera shoots at 7 frames a second with the standard issue battery or 9 frames/sec with extra battery pack (which I don’t have). 

[Denis]

The shot itself to me is fantastic, you have a caught both exiting a natural barrier of the branch and plant to the left of frame, and obviously banking sharp right to miss an unseen obstacle not in frame. (thats how it looks to me ! ) The colours are outstanding as Clicks points out, A terrific image all round Cheryl and one I would happily wish I had taken

[Clicker]

It looked impressive enough on my iPad when I first saw it  but on  my 27 inch iMac it really looks  fantastic ...You must be really pleased with this Cheryl .... I certainly would be ....

[Ryewolf]

That's an excellent shot, defnitely POTW material in my book.

[CMunzel]

16 hours ago, Denis said:

The shot itself to me is fantastic, you have a caught both exiting a natural barrier of the branch and plant to the left of frame, and obviously banking sharp right to miss an unseen obstacle not in frame. (thats how it looks to me ! ) The colours are outstanding as Clicks points out, A terrific image all round Cheryl and one I would happily wish I had taken

Thank you Denis. You’re right in your interpretation of what was happening with the birds swooping out and banking sharp right to dodge a branch. 

[CMunzel]

10 hours ago, Ryewolf said:

That's an excellent shot, defnitely POTW material in my book.

Thank you, Geoff.