Hoopoe in flight.
01st May 2025
The Hoopoe is an awkward bird to photograph well, yes you can sometimes see one probing soft earth and sand for grubs etc. but usually it’s a case of seeing one flying across a field usually away from you and then they frustratingly disappear. For such a distinctive bird they can be very difficult to locate even when hearing their obvious call.
In an olive grove nearby to where we were staying we kept seeing a bird flying back and fore from the grove across our line of view. Hoopoes love olive groves because they are generally quiet, there is space between the trees for them to dig around in the earth and the trees are perfect for nesting in because of the way they grow leaving gaps and crevices in their trunks.
I watched this particular bird for some time and finally I could see where it was going. It was flying into a newly threshed field where obviously various small insects and grubs etc. had been exposed by the threshing and were therefore easily foraged.
I waited in a convenient gap in the hedge hoping it would continue its behaviour, however, these birds are wary and suspicious so I wasn’t confident. I needn’t have worried though because it flew straight past me and down into the threshings finding food and then flying back to the grove.
I made myself ready for the next visit because there was very little time to catch it in flight - full stop. This was a small field and as the bird flew over the hedge into the field there was no time to react because you couldn’t tell when it was going to appear, one thing I was sure of was that it would return.
In it came again but once it landed in amongst the grass I couldn’t see it, but I knew roughly where it was, so this gave me a little time to react to get a flight shot. After it took off I had roughly three seconds before it flew over the hedge again, but the R6 MK2 locked onto it immediately. Using ‘Back button focus’ is perfect for a situation like this, you focus using a pre-selected button on the back of the camera and once the camera acquires focus on the subject you depress the shutter button conventionally. Three seconds is not much so I still had to be on the mark. Impressively it didn’t matter if the bird was above or below the skyline, the camera still achieved focus, my previous cameras struggled with subjects against cluttered backgrounds because the auto focus could become confused.
Satisfying to catch an awkward bird in flight.
In an olive grove nearby to where we were staying we kept seeing a bird flying back and fore from the grove across our line of view. Hoopoes love olive groves because they are generally quiet, there is space between the trees for them to dig around in the earth and the trees are perfect for nesting in because of the way they grow leaving gaps and crevices in their trunks.
I watched this particular bird for some time and finally I could see where it was going. It was flying into a newly threshed field where obviously various small insects and grubs etc. had been exposed by the threshing and were therefore easily foraged.
I waited in a convenient gap in the hedge hoping it would continue its behaviour, however, these birds are wary and suspicious so I wasn’t confident. I needn’t have worried though because it flew straight past me and down into the threshings finding food and then flying back to the grove.
I made myself ready for the next visit because there was very little time to catch it in flight - full stop. This was a small field and as the bird flew over the hedge into the field there was no time to react because you couldn’t tell when it was going to appear, one thing I was sure of was that it would return.
In it came again but once it landed in amongst the grass I couldn’t see it, but I knew roughly where it was, so this gave me a little time to react to get a flight shot. After it took off I had roughly three seconds before it flew over the hedge again, but the R6 MK2 locked onto it immediately. Using ‘Back button focus’ is perfect for a situation like this, you focus using a pre-selected button on the back of the camera and once the camera acquires focus on the subject you depress the shutter button conventionally. Three seconds is not much so I still had to be on the mark. Impressively it didn’t matter if the bird was above or below the skyline, the camera still achieved focus, my previous cameras struggled with subjects against cluttered backgrounds because the auto focus could become confused.
Satisfying to catch an awkward bird in flight.