Close Up Photos Of An Immature Bald Eagle In Flight

Sub-adult Bald Eagle in flight up close – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

Serendipity is when you have stopped to photograph a displaying and singing Red-winged Blackbird then when it flies off you see a Bald Eagle flying towards you over the playa and then having it fly in so close that you can’t fit the whole bird in the viewfinder. All while holding your breath.

The first photos I took of this immature, or sub-adult, Bald Eagle yesterday from a distance were pretty bad for two reasons, the first being the head position of the eagle which seemed to make its eyes and head disappear and the second being that it it had an inversion layer behind it that made the sky look purple-gray which wasn’t appealing at all. As the Bald Eagle flew in closer though and climbed higher into the sky I was able to photograph it without the inversion layer behind it and had nice blue sky surrounding the eagle.

This first image is full frame from side to side but I decided to crop out some of the sky above the eagle to center it more.

Immature Bald Eagle in flight close up – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

Three frames later I was able to get the entire immature Bald Eagle in the frame without clipping its wings but just barely. The left wingtip was extremely close to the edge of the frame. This image is full frame and just reduced in size for web presentation as is the image below.

The young Bald Eagle in flight was that close.

I liked the great view of the immature Bald Eagle’s face and how the morning light lit up the underside of its left wing.

Close immature Bald Eagle fly by – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

Two frames later I was able to fit the whole Bald Eagle into the frame for the last time because the eagle was so close to me after this frame that there simply wasn’t a way to photograph it without clipping its wings in my viewfinder.

If I hadn’t already been stopped to photograph the blackbird I wouldn’t have seen this immature Bald Eagle flying towards me in time to take the photos that I took of it on the wing. Yes, I’d call that serendipity.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Bald Eagle photos plus facts and information about this species.