2023-01-01: Violet backed starling

I was glad to start the new year working on my photography a bit, even if it was primarily behind the scenes, housekeeping type work, like finally finishing my first round of star rating my trip photos. When I came to the few photos I captured of the male violet backed starling, I smiled remembering how excited I was to finally have the opportunity to capture one of these birds in fairly decent light; that was enough to decide that this was the photo to edit if there was only going to be time to do one.

Our tour had a one-day trip into Chobe National Park in Botswana. It was a place I had visited on my first trip to Africa, and our group even had lunch at the same lodge I visited the first trip, so it really was a walk down memory lane. Being a different season, the experience was significantly different, but still very enjoyable. After border formalities and getting to the park, we were driving towards the river when our guide heard of some lions off of the main road about 20 minutes away. Our two guides chatted for a few minutes while slowly driving along, before making the choice to turn back to give people the chance to see some big cats. We spotted this starling just before making the decision to turn around, and it was only one of two that I saw on the trip (the other not offering any photo opportunities) so I am glad we carried on as far as we did before turning back for the lions.

Male violet backed starling, Chobe National Park, November 2022.

Starling in Silhouette

A starling singing in the early morning.  I was shooting into the sun and the sky was very clear and bright with lots of glare on the leaves; a bit of tinting to the black and white conversion completely changed feel of the photo. 1/4000 sec, f 5.6, ISO 400
A starling singing in the early morning. I was shooting into the sun and the sky was very clear and bright with lots of glare on the leaves; a bit of tinting to the black and white conversion completely changes feel of the photo.
1/4000 sec, f 5.6, ISO 400

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