Majestic Eagle

Majestic Eagle

This is such an amazing bird and the most elusive to capture this close up. I like how you can see the back of his blood shot eye ball in this shot, and a bit of a drool on his beak. This eagle has a genetic defect of the beak, as it is too hooked and it actually locks his mouth together if it is not trimmed on a regular basis. This is the reason for the capture of this bird and why he is not allowed to free fly. He could breed in the wild, causing this defect to spread to other eagle babies. He most likely would have been killed if not for sanctuaries like Lowry Park Zoo, and many more places like this. They have devised a method to let him fly, while still being tethered to keep him from free flying. All of the birds in places like this have a history of injury or like this bird and they are alive because of them.

Taken with a Nikon D-200 camera, a Nikon 80-400mm lens at a focal length of 310mm, shutter speed of 1/40 sec, aperture F/8, with a tripod.