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Photographing Red-and-green Macaws

One of the highlights of my Complete Pantanal Photo Tour is the part where we shoot Red-and-green Macaws. This is a private reserve with a big natural sinkhole, which is basically a cave whose ceiling has collapsed. Hundreds of macaws nest on the vertical sandstone walls of this sinkhole, providing incredible opportunities to shoot these amazing birds in flight.

Red-and-green Macaw Toco Toucan

The time of the day influences on how the macaws behave and the light too, of course. There is a period in the afternoon where it’s possible to shoot them in the sunlight but with the background in deep shade, creating a completely black background and the bird very highlighted in the foreground, a photo that everybody loves. I also like to shoot in the morning when they tend to fly underneath the platforms, so we shoot downwards to get those incredible colors of their upperwings and spread open tails. Other birds inhabit the hole and the surrounding forest, like Amazonian Motmot, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Spectacled Owl, Plush-crested Jay, Toco Toucan and many more.

Click here to check more details of this trip, where we also visit South and North Pantanal! We are going in 2019, from September 27 to October 09. And make sure to check the video below!