Scops owl... the tiny shadow

Hi

Finally back from another trip... it was amazing : forgetting the time, forgetting about what a night is supposed to be...

Almost all alone in the night... almost ? no... because some species are as active as a tit feeding his chick. Take example of this scops owl. I truly love this specie !!!

About this picture : It has been made under strict photographic conditions to avoid any problem with the breeding. One of the specialist of this specie in France helped me a lot to understand their behaviour, their tolerance to the modification of their surrounding and the care of the chicks. I created a nest, similar to the one they used but with an integrated flash and a camera in it. The power of the flash was strongly reduced using a mirror system, the camera was hidden in a box included in the nest...

The installation was made of 1 IR trap, the camera and 3 flashes. The camera was wire-controlled with a computer, all the flashes was set to manual. A picture will follow (perhaps).

I used a 14mm on a 5D to make this shot. The bird was close, very close only few centimetres away from the camera (the wing was surely touching it). BTW, this bird is small, VERY small : he is the size of a screech owl... but weight almost twice less