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Impala female as a host


Impala female as a host
Photo Information
Copyright: George Veltchev (mwmod99) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 855 W: 655 N: 3361] (14196)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2010-09-29
Categories: Mammals
Camera: Canon 5D MKII, Canon 70-200 F4 L USM IS
Exposure: f/5.6, 1/350 seconds
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2010-10-04 23:34
Viewed: 3343
Favorites: 1 [view]
Points: 34
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
This was a wonderful opportunity to capture both female Impala and it's host the Red Billed Oxpecker.

Impala
The Impala mainly lives in the vast savannas in South Africa. Where they roam searching for food in vast herds. The environment in South Africa on the Savannah's is dry, dusty with little vegetation but the Impala are well adapted to this environment and even thrive. They have to deal with the intense heat during the day and below minus temperatures at night. With living is such a harsh, dry and hot environment the Impala always need to be within good reach of water and if you ever come across a herd you will most likely find water nearby.

Red Billed Oxpecker
ID Pointers:
- Large yellow circle around eye.
- Grey-brown head & back.
- Light grey-brown wings & tail.
- Grey legs & feet.
- Pale yellow feathers on underside.
- Short red bill.

Diet:
Ticks, flies, fleas, dead host skin.

Eggs & Nests:
In a hole in a tree. Females lay 1-5 eggs in each clutch. Both parents incubate eggs.
Physical characteristics:

The Red-billed Oxpecker is a medium-sized passerine, 20 cm long with strong feet. It has plain brown upper parts and head, buff underparts and a pale rump. The bill is red, and adults have a yellow eye ring, both clear distinctions from the related Yellow-billed Oxpecker. Their flight is strong and direct, and the call is a coarse, hissy truk-quizzz.

Distribution and habitat:

They have suffered persecution in the past and disappeared, as did many of their large mammal hosts, from many places in their original range, a broad distribution across sub-Saharan Africa. Now they are common residents in game reserves, but scarce elsewhere.

Behavior:

Association with large mammal hosts runs deep into oxpeckers' lives: they travel with the herds, feed almost exclusively on their parasites, rest and preen, court and mate on them and may even sleep on them at night. BROs use their strong feet to cling onto their hosts and apply their bills to make quick scissoring movements combing through the hair.

The image was taken in RAW format and ISO400 just after Sunrise.
siggi, aruntp, paolo49, anel, haraprasan, Dis. Ac., marius-secan, Argus, matatur has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To matatur: Mehmetmwmod99 1 10-06 04:30
To Gameangler: Markmwmod99 1 10-05 02:17
To ingridshaul: Ingridmwmod99 1 10-05 02:14
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • siggi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3097 W: 109 N: 12399] (52850)
  • [2010-10-04 23:49]

Hello George,
Great shot of this beautiful Impala with a fine Red Billed Oxpecker. Excellent timing, good focus and fine sharp details. Beautiful colours too and well composed.
Best regards Siggi

good colors and background. nice photograph.

lovely image although I dont usually like the rear of animals in an image as it tends to spoil the subject nearly works in this one though

Dear George,
Nice shot of this female Impala from Dikhololo.

I think the photo would be even better, if you had been a bit more gentle with the saturation and colour adjustment.

I have stayed myself in this Nature Reserve several times (also in September) and there is definitely too much red in this image...

You will find George, that correct exposure and contrast automatically achieve natural colours avoiding the necessity to edit the colours/ saturation!

Kind Regards
Ingrid

Hello George,
another very beautiful picture of impala, details, light and colors perfect. A very beautiful image. Regards, Paolo

  • Great 
  • anel Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 3053 W: 3 N: 8715] (40574)
  • [2010-10-05 4:31]

Hello George,
What a fine and natural picture, most beautifully prresented. I love these golden and brown tints! The Impala's pose is not common and is so lively shown. Great picture indeed, it will go to my favourite pictures.
Kind regards
Anne

Hello George,
Lovely capture with superb colours and excellent details.
Interesting light and very nice composition.
Congratulations.
Sami TAMSON

Ciao George. Another intersting dynamic captuire in perfect DOF and stunning details. Exciting light.

Roberto

  • Great 
  • nagraj Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1618 W: 106 N: 3208] (15166)
  • [2010-10-05 5:13]

Hi,
fine image showing the Impala in interesting pose and good composition. tfs.
nagraj.v

  • Great 
  • PeterZ Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5137 W: 166 N: 13121] (49139)
  • [2010-10-05 7:31]

Hello George,
Very beautiful scene with this Impala with Red-billed Oxpecker. Great sharpness, details and DOF. The photo looks a bit yellowish, but the colours are pretty warm. Excellent composition.
Regards,
Peter

Hi George,
A lovely capture of this beautiful female Impala and also the beautiful Red Billed Oxpecker. Great composition with very good sharp details. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Hi George,

very good image from this Impala.
Suburp sharpness and pov.
Fine brown colourtones.

Gert

Ciao George, lovely composition with cute creature and little guest, beautiful natural colors, wonderful ambientation, very well done my friend, ciao Silvio

Hello George,
Lovely capture with exceptional details and natural colours.
Fantastic clarity and focus. Congratulation!
Marius.

Hello George,
Well, this photo discovers some privacy! (we can say "D" classification, ha ha ha) But it's another great job! ...
I like the way you have of finding a "extra touch" in your photos. In this case, the bird on the back of the impala.
Regards, TFS, Jesús

  • Great 
  • Argus Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5038 W: 260 N: 15594] (50626)
  • [2010-10-05 22:41]

Hello George,
Accurate focusing and a great DOF to provide total sharpness of the subjects as well as a pleasing BG in a fine composition make this a top class photo. Both the female Imapala, busy cleaning herself, and the Red-billed Oxpecker are well seen in their natural habitats.
Thanks and kind regards,
Ivan

An intriguing double-capture in good taste George, very natural looking couple within a natural environment, plus good management on selective focus and exposure have resulted in a fine scene indeed. What I face difficulty in understanding is the heading and your opening sentence. Surely the impala is the host here, while the oxpecker is a visitor!
Cheers,
Mehmet

I love the colours in this photo, taken at the best time of day. Pity you didn't have a longer lens to get aa bit more of the bird, but great nature shot anyway! Well done

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