Wild hyacinth macaws

These are wild hyacinth macaws that I photographed during my photo tour to the Pantanal region of Brazil (the next tour is this November). The mating pair uses an artificial nest built by the lodge that my group and I stay in, and this picture was taken from the top of a 3-story spiral staircase constructed not far from the tree specifically for photographers. Periodically, the macaws leave the tree in search of food, and that's the time to catch them in flight. I was focusing on other birds at the time and missed the elevated view of the pair returning to their nest. One of my clients on that tour did, in fact, capture it, so my goal for myself this coming November is to get something similar. Here you see that one of the macaws was already perched while its mate was alighting on the same branch. Note that even the wing tips are sharp. That only happens with a fast shutter. For larger birds like macaws, storks, hawks, spoonbills, and herons that fly relatively slowly, you can get away with a shutter speed that isn't ultra fast. Still, I used 1/2000th of a second here along with f/8 and 2500 ISO. I shot this with a 500mm lens plus a 1.4x telephoto for 700mm of focal length. Most of us have seen these birds in captivity, but to see them in the wild is truly a thrill.