Botswana, Animals

Little Bee-Eater

When our guide Shakes asked what we wanted to see, I said bee-eaters! He did not disappoint, but they are tiny little birds that flit around in the air so quickly you cannot follow them. That makes them really difficult to photograph!

This one is a little bee-eater, one of 31 species in the family.

To get these images, my zoom lens is extended as far as it would go, and I've cropped out surrounding leaves. I need to save up for a ridiculously long lens, one of those gigantic ones that are really expensive!

Swallow-tailed Bee-Eater

Shakes found another group the next day. This time, they were swallow-tailed.

We stayed with these birds for a long time, patiently trying to get in-flight photos. We'd set the shutter to burst mode, select a really fast speed, then we'd zoom in on one bird and wait. At the slightest move, we'd fire off a dozen photos.

I have one photo after another of the bird sitting on a branch. Then I have a series of photos of the empty branch. I pressed the shutter immediately with the action, but bee-eaters are far quicker than I am!