The Frigatebird and the Diamond Ring by Liron Gertsman

This image was taken in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico, 2024. 

A personal note from the photographer: In 2022, while dreaming up some crazy wildlife photo concepts, I had an idea. What would it take to photograph birds with a total solar eclipse? Obviously, this was going to be difficult to pull off. Besides the fact that total solar eclipses only take place somewhere on the planet every 1 to 3 years and that eclipse totality typically lasts just a few minutes, it is also very hard to know what birds are going to be doing when darkness envelops the Earth in the middle of the day. After over a year of research and virtual planning, and close to a week of intensive in-person scouting up and down the coast of Sinaloa, Mexico, it all finally came together on the morning of April 8th, 2024. Just offshore from Mazatlan, eclipse totality lasted almost 4.5 minutes, and I enlisted the help of a small boat to position myself near some islets where I found lots of seabirds frequented during both the day and the night. As the moon began to uncover the edge of the sun at the end of totality, I captured this image of a Magnificent Frigatebird in front of the spectacular “diamond ring”!

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