Fantails are one of our ubiquitous native birds that are known for following people around. Friendly fantails don’t really like us personally, but they do enjoy feeding on the insects we stir up! They are aerial insectvores, so they catch bugs on the wing – and they do some neat acrobatics to do so.  

Fantails are difficult to photograph because they never stop moving! While spending some time at Lake MacGregor, I could hear a few peeping in the trees, so I set out to try and photograph them. One in particular took a fancy to me, and followed me around for quite some time. Mostly too close to photograph! He would flit up around my head, nearly landing on the lens before retreating (about 10cm) to perch on the ground or on a branch. It was such a great experience, and it was great to get some nice photos (finally!) of a fantail. Next on the list is a black morph fantail – they’re mostly in the South Island and I saw one while we were there, but he disappeared before I could make any images with him.

One last image, of a small fly meeting an untimely end!