This past week I have observed female Belted Kingfishers (Megaceryle alcyon) at a couple of different locations at my marshland park and tried to capture them in flight as they dove into the water from their perches in the trees. It was challenging, because the kingfishers were pretty far away, but I did get a couple of decent shots (with a fair amount of cropping).
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Mike Powell 
Those aren’t bad shots considering how hard it is to photograph a bird in flight. I didn’t know that they folded their crest down in flight, but I guess it makes sense that they would.
I guess it makes them more aerodynamic. When they drop from the tree they are moving pretty past (in these cases they were going almost straight down).
Very cool. These guys are amazing.
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