My favorite bird photos

Deep in a mangrove thicket, a Ruddy Kingfisher (Halcyon coromanda) responded to call back vocalizations.  Shooting through a chainlink fence did not seem promising for good photos.  I deleted a few and then starting with the photo below my hopes improved.

I moved to where I found a bigger opening in the mangroves and kept shooting.  The photos below - with mud evident on the bird's large bill - began to improve.

Finally, I got the photo above.  The Ruddy Kingfisher is a truly beautiful bird and has just a few dots of range in India.  Sometimes it pays to have a less fancy camera.  The big lens Canon guys did not get this bird's photo secondary to focusing issues presented by the mangrove branches.  Somehow I lucked out.

Ruddy Kingfisher is found only in mangroves.  We found our bird in the muddy mangrove area of a tidal river on Havelock Island as the tide was coming back in.