Stagonopleura bella (Beautiful Firetail)

IUCN Status: Least Concern

My “lifer” for this species was on my first trip to Melaluca in 2011. On that trip I had a hired zoom lens with me, and very little experience. Since then, I’ve seen these guys many times, but never in a situation that allowed me to improve my photographs.

While pelagics were the focus of a recent trip back to Tassie, I was very happy for this opportunity. What is really clear is that both my ability as a photographer, and the equipment have radically improved in the year in between. You’d hope so with home much time, effort and resource invested.