Wampoo Fruit Dove

Really crappy shot I'm afraid. I shot it from my veranda through a pair of small binoculars, thus the poor focus and crappy image quality. (Yes, I held the eyepiece of a pair of binoculars onto the front of my 50mm lens and then carefully tweaked the manual focus ring until it looked reasonable - not an easy task while holding the camera with the other hand).

This bird on the other hand is magnificent. It's much larger than a regular pigeon and has the most colourful plumage, almost parrot like (I mistook it for a female king parrot initially until I fetched some binoculars). Under the wings is a combination of bright yellow and a magenta.

View all photos taken: Friday, 19th October 2007, This photo: 1:46pm

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Comments

  • James Ottaway said:
    Beautiful bird there David! Kudos for going to the trouble. I certainly wouldn't have... =P

    What happened to your tele?

    EDIT: The outer edges almost look like they've been radially blurred.
  • David de Groot said:
    I don't have one - well not for the 400D anyway. There's an FD mount 300m f/4 for the T70 but it doesn't work on the EOS range and I'm out of film.

    Yeah the binoculars do strange things to the picture - radial blue, vignetting, bad focus and CA. Not ideal by any means.
  • beachut (John) said:
    The main thing is that you got it, what an amazing looking bird...My sunbirds have finished their nest and are in it so I am looking forward to sunbird shots...They have built it outside my bathroom window so i may put in one way glass somehow
  • The Sage of Shadowdale said:
    That's when Johnno's 300/2.8 would come in handy. :D
    --
    Discovered using FlickrFox. (?)
  • David de Groot said:
    Sunbirds are those little yellow and greeney-black birds with the long curved beaks aren't they ? Looking forward to seeing some of those :)

    Darn right - or the 100-400 L I've got my eye on...
  • James Ottaway said:
    Darn right - or the 100-400 L I've got my eye on...

    Ah, if only money grew on trees. Looks like I'm about to settle with a 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS USM.
  • looby88 said:
    I have a very good if over the top imagination, your description brought up some great images , as did your whirlpool photo the other day, keep up the good work, it gives me lots of laughs !!

    Hats off to you for effort !! not that I wear a hat.......
  • David de Groot said:
    Well mine is contingent on a new job...which hopefully shan't be too far off...

    As it happens I have a hat, and it's off right now! ;-)
  • rumblemumbles said:
    well done on the effort to get the shot....thats dedication. I have never seen one of these birds before...they are very pretty and colourful :)
  • David de Groot said:
    I was pretty sure we had them around the place as I've heard their "wompooo" call, although this one was making an odd little croak which is how I found it.
  • Ian Mc1 said:
    Good effort Dave.
    I take it you traded in your S2 when you got your SLR.
    I see there are only 3 other Wampoos on Flickr and they are all captive birds so looks like you got a first !!!
    Congrats.
  • David de Groot said:
    Nope, the S2 was inside, with flat batteries :(
    Typical, I get the first wild shot of a Wampoo on flickr and it's craptastic!
  • looby88 said:
    LOL !!!! serious amount of laughing here !!!!
  • Ian Mc1 said:
    Ditto LOL !!!!
    Maybe you could have raided batteries from another appliance for a couple of shots !!!
  • Life As Art said:
    Dave, this is actually quite lovely!
    People buy Lensbabies to achieve the same effect.

    Sure, ornithologically it's not ideal, but you're not an Ornithologist. You're an artist. I like it!
  • David de Groot said:
    :-P

    Ah well see AA batteries in this house tend to be in cahoots with each other and all go flat at the same time.

    True :)
  • Yorri¢k said:
    the focus is somehow appealing and imo adds to the rarity of such a magical dove. fantastic catch. love the low tech tele :)
  • David de Groot said:
    It reminds me of blurry big-foot photos ;-)