Reflections of a RARE kind ... 🅴🅽🅳🅰🅽🅶🅴🆁🅴🅳 Black-bellied tern : My wildlife photo, species info and musings

"A photograph must come from imagination and not be a reflection of what is." - Thierry Mugler.

Endangered species like the Black-bellied tern (Sterna acuticauda) are always sought by every wildlife photographer. I was part lucky and part industrious to achieve the photograph that I am sharing. As the quote says, I used my imagination to capture something different for this bird - a photo with a lovely water splash with the droplets forming a crown around the bird and a nice reflection. It was almost as if the bird was trying to see itself in all it's glory before it ultimately becomes extinct!

SPLASH !

Contrary to other species of birds and mammals I have posted so far, this one is Extremely rate to see. It is on the Endangered species list and there are less than a 1000 individuals estimated to exist based on various studies!

I did not have the foggiest idea that this rare bird will suddenly appear in front of me. I was actually on the lookout for an Osprey - hoping to catch a glimpse of it. I waited around in hot blazing sun for almost 2-3 hours. It was almost 1 PM and I was about to give up and go home. The conditions were not great for photography either in a general sense - light was harsh and directly from overhead.

Then, out of nowhere, the black-bellied turn appeared. Flying very low and skimming water sometimes and sometimes rising up and diving. It was moving very very fast and I spent minute after frustrating minute trying to get it in my viewfinder and focus.

I am not a great fan of pointing the camera in the general direction and firing a burst of photographs - we call it "Spray and Prey" Which means - fire off a burst of shots and hope one of them is focused enough. That day, in desperation, I tried even that. Got a couple of blurry headless shots of the bird!! 😀

Then I decided to get down to almost the level of water and observe the bird a bit before attempting further shots. I noticed that the bird was trying to swoop when it saw something floating on water or caused a disturbance in water. So, I targeted a region where there were some bubbles and water. Sure enough, the bird made a pass and dived right at those bubbles and rose up again. I got the shot!!

The harsh light from the sun directly overhead actually worked in my favor because I could get this fantastic clear reflection and beautiful water drops reflecting sunlight.

Here is the photograph in original size and form:

Crowning glory - Reflecting an Endangered life!

Information about the bird

• Name: Black-bellied tern

• Scientific name: Sterna acuticauda

• Size: Around 30-35 cm (12-14 inches)

• Conservation status: Endangered (IUCN 3.1)

• Description (based on e-bird, Wikipedia and my observations): This bird is now found only in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and some portions of Myanmar. Some individuals may exist in Nepal but that is unconfirmed. It is mainly a bird that prefers inland marshlands and low river lands. Due to the loss of this type of habitat, because of increasing encroachment, land refills etc., the species is slowly becoming extinct. I usually flies low over water looking for fish to catch.

Information about photograph

• Aperture: F7.1
• ISO: 400
• Shutter: 1/2000
• Support: Handheld shot
• Camera: Nikon D500
• Lens: Nikkor 200-500mm
• Image format: Photo clicked in RAW and edited for presentation sizing

A big thank you for support

Thanks to c/hive-106444 (Feathered friends community) for providing this wonderful opportunity to present my experience and photographs. Thanks to @barbara-orenya and @melinda010100 for all the support and encouragement to this community. Special thanks to @nelinoeva also for starting the Species hunt initiative. My posts are not exactly in that format but have all the necessary info and Good original Photos. Further guidance will be very much welcome.

Thanks to HIVE for this wonderful platform. I am using the Hive logo in the collage for showing that the image and post is a dedicated HIVE post. Hope that is OK. The burb with HIVE is a graphic created by @doze and free to use as per his post.

Note: All images and collages in this blog are created by me, based on photos clicked by me personally and/or free vector images from Pixabay
Quotes used, if not credited, are either from unknown authors or are proverbial old sayings.