Redbilled Quelea Flight

Redbilled Quelea (Quelea quelea)
Roberts VII - 821
Female

As the sun was setting I managed to capture a flight shot of these rapid moving birds coming in for some last minute foraging.

The Redbilled Quelea's are very small birds (11-13cm). They are highly gregarious and you often seen them in swarms of thousands and can incur serious crop losses at times.
Flocks are densely packed and highly synchronized in flight, looking like smoke cloud at distance; flight fast and dashing. Forages on ground, often scratching for seeds by jumping backwards with both feet; also feeds on standing heads of grain and grass; vast swarms assemble to drink at waterholes, sometimes breaking branches with sheer weight; drinking flock may fly over water, lowest birds dropping into water to drink and fly up again, so that flock "rolls" over water surface.

Underberg
Kwazulu-Natal
South Africa

Additional EXIF Info
Lens: Canon 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM
Extender: Canon 1.4x II
Exposure Bias: Av(-0.33)