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Focus On - Pied Kingfisher"Shoot first, ask questions later!" - an old aphorism from Wild West films where baddies jump out of shadows six-gun in grimy hands, and the goodie has no choice but to fire as he protects the damsel in distress... Same applies to photographers in the wild when trying to capture photographs of birds, especially those in flight. We don't usually have the damsel in distress, but our trigger finger has to be as rapid as Lee Van Cleef, Clint Eastwood or Eli Wallach. When travelling through Tarangire National Park, we stopped on a bridge over the Tarangire River and this wee fellow, first image, was sitting in a bush by the bank. He is a pied kingfisher ((Ceryle_rudis) ==>http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ceryle_rudis/ ), and I say "he" because there are two bands across his chest - a broad gorget, and thinner one below. Apparently, males have this configuration while females have only the gorget - an example of sexual dimorphism (sounds good, sounds like I know what I'm tal

Description
Focus On - Pied Kingfisher"Shoot first, ask questions later!" - an old aphorism from Wild West films where baddies jump out of shadows six-gun in grimy hands, and the goodie has no choice but to fire as he protects the damsel in distress... Same applies to photographers in the wild when trying to capture photographs of birds, especially those in flight. We don't usually have the damsel in distress, but our trigger finger has to be as rapid as Lee Van Cleef, Clint Eastwood or Eli Wallach. When travelling through Tarangire National Park, we stopped on a bridge over the Tarangire River and this wee fellow, first image, was sitting in a bush by the bank. He is a pied kingfisher ((Ceryle_rudis) ==>http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ceryle_rudis/ ), and I say "he" because there are two bands across his chest - a broad gorget, and thinner one below. Apparently, males have this configuration while females have only the gorget - an example of sexual dimorphism (sounds good, sounds like I know what I'm tal