Sunbittern in flight

This is a sunbittern I captured in the Pantanal region of Brazil. When its wings are folded, the bird is absolutely unimpressive. But when it takes flight, the remarkable pattern and brilliant colors show beautifully. I shot this with my standard camera settings for birds in flight -- 1/3200, f/11, and auto ISO. The original background was not bad -- out of focus jungle -- but it wasn't great. I felt it was busy and unattractive. When my photo tour group cruised up and down the river looking for birds and jaguars, I also looked for beautiful backgrounds I could use. This is one of them. So often, you can find great subjects but they aren't in an ideal location. That's why having a collection of backgrounds is so important. To select the sunbittern, I used the pen tool in Photoshop and worked at 300% to make sure the selection was perfect.