Scarlet Macaw Pair Meeting with Wings Raised at Carara

The nearer macaw lifts both blue wings as the pair meet beside palm fruit, compressing their red bodies and long tails into an intimate canopy portrait at Cerro Lodge and the Carara area in Costa Rica. Scarlet Macaws form long-term pair bonds; their red bodies, yellow-and-blue wings and long graduated tails make them unmistakable over Costa Rica's Central Pacific forest. The exposure of 1/1600 sec, f/5.6 and ISO 6400 holds the flight posture and major feather groups sharply while leaving restrained motion in the quickest wing tips; the photograph was made in natural light without flash.