Swallowtail salt-sipping - Bill Harbin - Wildlife Photographer of the Year2008

2008: Animal Portraits - Specially Commended

Bill Harbin Enlarge image Swallowtail salt-sipping

Bill Harbin (United States)

Swallowtail salt-sipping

'Looking through binoculars beside a stream in Mexico, I was struck by the power of the head-on image - large black eyes, contrasting yellow face and long proboscis. By crawling on my stomach through the mud and sand to within 30 centimetres of the butterfly, I managed to capture the dramatic perspective I wanted.' The giant swallowtail butterfly uses its proboscis, a straw-like feeding tube, to suck up nectar from various plants. But it can't get all the nutrients it needs to survive from nectar alone. Because of this, it feeds from puddles of mud or wet sand to get the missing yet valuable salts and minerals. This is called puddling.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III + 180mm macro lens + 1.4 teleconverter; 1/125 sec at f9; ISO 400; Canon 580EX flash + ETTL2.