Photographed in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, India, the unmistakable peacock. These birds were seen frequently throughout the park with numerous males seen proudly displaying their magnificent tail feathers. Although these birds are generally seen on the ground, at one point we sighted one perched high in a tree. We stopped and waited in hope that the bird might take off from the branch and provide us with a somewhat rare flight shot. Alas, it was content to survey its surroundings from up high and, heavily backlit didn’t make for a satisfying image.
In this case, I took several images of this bird as it displayed and circled and liked this tightly cropped view best.
Peacock displaying.
Whilst obviously the males display in this manner to try and impress the females, they can also be quite territorial and display in order to assert themselves in the presence of other males.
AI for auto-focus?
As an aside, many of the current crop of digital cameras utilise Artificial Intelligence based animal and/or bird eye detect for auto-focusing. In this instance, these systems can get confused over what is actually an eye!
During this trip, I was using the Fujifilm XH2s. Fujifilm seems to have lagged behind some of the other brands in terms of auto-focus performance and whilst familiarity with the camera system is an important consideration, I remain somewhat sceptical about AI use. I can’t help but think that AI recognition of what actually is a bird is problematical. Just think, a robin, a swan, a vulture, a penguin are all birds but could hardly be more different in size, shape, colouration, etc. Perhaps, and hopefully, in time and with updates, these systems will become more reliable. ~KD.