A few days after Christmas, I was trying to photograph a perching Brahminy Kite that I found in one of my photography spots. Now, I’m such a raptor (those eagles, kites, falcon etc) repellent that I have never successfully captured any images of them perching (this was before my previous posting). Mind you, I have always managed to spot them high up in the sky. There was once, where two juvenile sea eagles were flying relatively low above me and I excitedly took shots after shots. Unfortunately for me, the CF card gave repeated write errors without me realizing and all the money shots got dumped (>50 of them!)

Luck was not about to change for me with regards to this kite, and by the time I got my camera set-up in position, it flew off! Oh well…

Walking away from that spot, suddenly another raptor flew hurriedly away from one of the branches of tree that I was passing though. Luckily for me, it flew a short distance. So I gingerly trod towards it’s presumed landing site.

Just one turn away, my luck changed.

It’s an Oriental Honey Buzzard. A winter migrant that has the body of a typical raptor, but the head is unusually small like a pigeon.
 

So close until I have to cut off the tail in this picture, or risk falling down a monsoon drain…

 

Video of it playing with stick (720p HD option gives higher quality but with slower load time)
 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgAK5jLxqvI&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1&w=405&h=720]