Canon EOS 60D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
1/800s f/4.0 at 145.0mm iso800

This pretty Mandarin duck is one of our favorite subjects at the San Diego Zoo.

This time it was displaying some interesting behavior. I’m not sure how best to describe it but it was rapidly opening and closing its beak. The obvious guess would be that it had something to do with impressing the other sex, but I don’t really know. 🙂

Technically, there’s not a whole lot to say about this shot. Since the beak was moving so rapidly, it took a couple of frames to capture it with the beak open. Also a fast shutter speed was required or else the beak would have been blurry from the fast motion. Since the duck was in the shade, it took a higher ISO (800) and a fairly large aperture (f/4.0) to get a fast enough shutter speed. The large aperture also reduced the depth of field, such that the water in the foreground and background is creamily out of focus.