Rare bird: Dusky Nightjar

The story behind this photo is, I think, incredible.

We were in the mountains of Costa Rica, near Savegre. The sun had set an hour before. Our guide, Steven Easley, (a near-magician with birds) had brought us here to try and see and shoot the Dusky Nightjar. We were positioned on an old dirt road overlooking a large valley. They was barely enough light to see anything. Steven said, "The bird will land on that post right there." There were at least five other fence posts in the immediate vicinity that the bird could choose from.

Steven shined his powerful light on the post and I set the focus manually and double checked the exposure. Steven said we would only have one chance. He turned the light off and we waited in silence for several minutes. Then we heard birds leaving the pine trees up the hill. Steven played the bird's call. It was pitch dark now. He whispered, "The bird is on the post." I couldn't see anything, much less the bird.

"Are you ready?" he said.

"Yes", I replied.

He counted to three and shined the light on the post. The bird was there! I pressed the shutter release and took two pictures. The bird vanished into the night...

Steven hooted and yelled. So did my wife and I. I asked Steven how he knew the bird would land on that particular post. He said, "I just guessed".

Steven thought that this might be the best picture in existence of this bird, as it is a very difficult bird to even see, much less photograph. I don't know, but I do know that I am happy to have gotten it.

It was awesome.

Hope you enjoy it.

1D MkII, 500 f4, 1/60 @ f4, ISO 800, 580 EX, RAW, 50% crop