Motif: Collared Forest Falcon

Not a glamorous image, but face it you don't see many shots of this bird especially in the wild! The guidebooks say "rarely seen." It's a favorite because of the circumstances. I'd never heard of it before our trip to Tamaulipas, Mexico (Los Ebanos Ranch) last May. Then our host reported seeing one one morning. The next morning I was dropped rather spontaneously at a lake we had not previously visited with two other shooters. They both had camo, I didn't, so for some reason they didn't want me to sit with them on the Pileated Woodpecker nest. So I went wandering and heard this unfamiliar raptor cry. I imitated and he responded. Following the call I found this guy deep in a thickly-foliaged tree, gazing rather quizzically at me as if expecting someone else. I managed several shots before he took off over a forested area. Unwilling to really believe what I had, I asked a couple of very serious birders on the trip to ID the bird without telling them what I suspected. To say I was excited is an understatement! That afternoon the bird returned and I was able to ID it by its call for one other person to photograph but not this closely again.
Canon 20D, 500IS. Metering +1/3, full flash, ISO 400, 1/30sec at f/10.