The Common Kestrel, by Saniar Rahman Rahul

Taken at Punakha, Bhutan, the common kestrel is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside; the remiges are also blackish. The cere, feet, and a narrow ring around the eye are bright yellow; the toenails, bill and iris are dark. Juveniles look like adult females, but the underside streaks are wider; the yellow of their bare parts is paler. Hatchlings are covered in white down feathers, changing to a buff-grey second down coat before they grow their first true plumage.

Canon EOS 7D | ISO 400 | Focal Length 300mm | Exposure f/9 @ 1/250sec | Bias -2/3 EV
The Common Kestrel, by Saniar Rahman Rahul

Award Winner: Photo of the Day | December 26
Award Score: 66 (Value 11.5, Clarity 12, Composition 17, Style 13, Skill 12.5)
Photo of the Day Award Category: Wildlife Photography
Photograph Location: Punakha | Bhutan

Photographer: Saniar Rahman Rahul (Dhaka, Bangladesh) Registered
Saniar Rahman Rahul was the first winner for ‘Photo of the Month Award’ in June 2010. He was fascinated by seeing his father taking pictures with a camera while his family was in Iraq during his childhood. Later in life, in 1997, while he became very much attached with his profession of ‘graphic design’, Rahul rediscovered the creative side of photography. He started his career as a professional graphic designer in October of 1995, in a pre-press house called Color Scan, which is one of the pioneers in the pre-process printing media in Bangladesh. Afterwards, he moved to Power Point, another pre-press house. Before he finally settled into advertising, he also worked in an IT company called Abtab IT. Moving to advertising from printing media was a big step for him. In 2005, he joined G3, a special wing of Gray Worldwide. Two years later, he moved to Paper Rhyme. Now he is working as the Art Director of Grey World Wide, one of the ten largest advertising agencies in the world.

Portfolio: http://www.flickr.com/photos/srrahul/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/srahul