p.1 #1 · Bee-eaters - the most colourful birds Poland has to offer
Congratulations to michal.narozny for winning Feature Thread of the Week with 3 votes - View Previous Winners
Hello,
this year I had a chance to spend some time and photograph two bee eater colonies. One of them was my local one, located in Northern Poland. Few years ago such encounter would be more than unusual but now I hear about bee eaters going as far as Sweden! The second one was located in Hungary, where certainly temperature is more favourable for this species. It was a very satisfying trip and I hope to present some more pictures in another topic.
Taking pictures of the local bee eater community didn’t come easy though. At some point we even had to a call up the police and local wildlife depot to stop bulldozer works around their colony, otherwise quite a number would be just buried alive. Thankfully this has not happen! Shooting them involved setting a portable hide (masking net plus some fishing rod holders) and estimating appropriate distance. Soon I learned what is acceptable by the birds and pure fun began of watching them forage, play and pose.
Hungarian bee eaters on the other hand were way easier to shoot as the colony was in my opinion enormous! 300 birds or more. Such numbers added to complexity but it was great fun even though sometimes light got a bit too harsh for my liking.
I hope you enjoy the set.
Cheers,
Michal
P.s all pictures have been resized to 2048 @longer edge
p.1 #4 · Bee-eaters - the most colourful birds Poland has to offer
Extraordinary imagery Michal Perhaps my favorite of all birds but will never have the opportunity to photograph. Exceptional work with the food tosses, just superb!
You easily have earned my vote. Wonderful presentation!
p.1 #12 · Bee-eaters - the most colourful birds Poland has to offer
Ted ellis wrote:
Outstanding series
Voted
Thank you
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morris wrote:
Superb photos Michal. 10 and the last are my top picks
Morris
Thanks, I really like them toss the food. It is hard to catch the right position of the bug tho Waiting for the moment is the fun part!
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Karl Witt wrote:
Extraordinary imagery Michal Perhaps my favorite of all birds but will never have the opportunity to photograph. Exceptional work with the food tosses, just superb!
You easily have earned my vote. Wonderful presentation!
Karl
Thank you. I hope you will get a chance to see them. Not so long ago I tohught I would never see them around my place or visit their nesting site.
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gregfountain wrote:
Great set of images! Apparently, they eat more than bees
Greg
Thanks! Yeah they do eat everyting that flies. But if a bug sits of a branch next to them or be on a ground ... they will not touch it. They only hunt in flight.
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aaronbor wrote:
These are spectacular! These birds are fast moving and you did a great job capturing them.
Thanks Theyare certainly very aware of surroundings. All the tossing and passing food happens very quickly. They appear and off they go. Sometimes bee eaters stop for a while and just pose ... but no action happens.
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Claude wrote:
Wow, excellent!
Claude
Thank you Claude!
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shibutg wrote:
Well captured, awesome lighting too.
Shibu
Thanks. At home I could pick lighting better ... so in 3 months I had a chance to visit bee eaters 3 times. Either no time or bad light.
birdied wrote:
Such a extraordinary set!! All marvelous and so very well done. Your efforts paid off. Also, thank you for intervening and saving the colony.
Birdie
Thanks. Thankfuly the owner of the site was very resonable too. So no fines etc. happened. I had to act remotly but I think everyting ended really well for birds, owner of land and 'universe' haha.
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dclark wrote:
Wow!!!
One prize winning shot after another.
Beautiful birds, amazing action, technical excellence in the shots.
I love this post!
Got my vote.
p.1 #18 · Bee-eaters - the most colourful birds Poland has to offer
Michal,
There is beauty then there is BEAUTY! These are just an absolute joy to behold! You are so very fortunate to have experienced this and your capture of these birds is outstanding!
Perhaps my favorite of all birds but will never have the opportunity to photograph. Exceptional work with the food tosses, just superb! 
