This bluebird was leaving a nest hole after feeding its babies. The hole is in a dead tree in a burned area of the Santa Cruz Mountains. I wanted to show the feathers refracting sunlight into rainbow colors, so I hid myself under camouflage nets where the sun would be near the nest but behind the tree trunk. I used a telephoto lens and each time one of the parent birds flew in or out I took photos. I changed position many times to stay in the tree shadow as the sun moved. Because it was so bright I was able to use an exposure time of 1/8000 of a second, fast enough to stop the motion of the wings and make the sky in the background look dark.
