Cayman Brac Parrot (Wild)

Those who remember me from the other site may recall that one of my passions (and what got me into this bird photography thing) is parrots. I've been known to travel ridiculous distances and suffer greatly in to obtain usually mediocre images of rare parrots. Here's one, but fortunately I didn't have to suffer much to get it. Actually I lucked into it, being unaware there was such a parrot before I read about it in the in-flight magazine en route to the island. Once I knew, of course, it was only a matter of time.

This is the Cayman Brac Parrot, (sorry I misplaced the magazine with the Latin name) -- it's a subspecies of Amazonas, endemic to this tiny Carribean Island, with about 350 remaining and declining. That makes it the rarest of the known Amazon species. They have been killed as pests, and admittedly a flock can decimate a mango tree in a single afternoon. Unfortunately (?), in our brief session we were unable to observe that behavior, but I did get a few portraits. Not a wall-hanger, just a representation of a species most people will never see, not even the hundreds (or thousands?) who visit the island each year.

10D, 100-400 hand held, ISO setting 400, camera-mounted flash set at 0, Better Beamer.

And I'm aware of the bright sky but there was nothing I could do about it, it had been raining. The bird was in shadow and the sky was white, but I only had about an hour to work on them and most were higher in the foliage.

I'll post something more artistic next time.

Lillian