It has been a good season for Fantails and the high numbers have meant plenty of opportunities to practice on these tiny erratic birds. In my previous post I shared some images from Lake Okareka and this week I will share a few more from a trip up north of Auckland where we encountered another feast of Fantails.

This trip was special for a few reasons, not least of which was that it was to photograph with Edin and shared adventures are always more fun. Her local knowledge of the area had us in a spot where she had photographed a leucistic Fantail and this location also gave us some great opportunities on Kaka.

I have posted previously on Leucistic birds and it is alway exciting to find one. The previous one I have photographed was not quite as pale as this one which seems to have disorders of both eumelanin and phaeomelanin production.

Fantails have 2 colour morphs with the Black Fantail being more common in the South Island but I have been lucky to photograph one as far north as Rotorua and was excited to see it recently still in the same place I found it when mountain biking a year ago.

I will have to spend a bit more time with the black one to try and catch an image of it hawking. I don’t fancy my chances as his forest habitat is too bushy to get a clean background to catch him in flight.

This final image was stroke of luck combining a white fantail against a white back ground that I look for with my Birds on White series.

This is the type of image that requires manual exposure to achieve. Birds in flight is one genre that is difficult with any automatic mode as the changing backgrounds can cause the camera to alter exposure when what is needed is the correct exposure for the bird which remains constant. This image is rewarding on a number of levels. Technically getting a white bird on white is a nice challenge. Getting a Fantail in flight is a challenge and then to get it with prey in frame is another challenge. The first two elements can be practiced and improved. The third is pure luck as the insects are invisible in flight. Getting the first two right puts you in a position to get lucky with the third.

Photos with Nikon D500 and Nikon D850 (Fantails on White). Nikon 500mmf4 (Black Fantail), Nikon 500mm f5.6PF (Fantails hawking and perched leucistic Fantail), Nikon 300mm f4PF (White Fantail on white)