Crested Barbet

I'm very lucky to have a pair of Crested Barbet's nesting in a large pine tree accross the road. Unfortunately they are just out of effective range for my 300mm lens (420mm with a 1.4 extender), as you can see the resolution on this large crop is not great, but you can still make out the nest hole in the photo below:



I love the afrikaans name for the Crested Barbet birds, Kuifkophoutkapper, which is fantastically descriptive. These birds are extreemly noisy and their shrill trrrrrrrrr call can be heard throughout the day. They are also extreemly frustrating to photograph, never sitting still for more than a few seconds and rarely comming into range. So far this is about the best snap i have got:



I think i may have to build a bird feeder to lure them closer, watch this space!