Some sort of kingfisher (enhanced), Silang, Cavite, Philippines

Silang, Cavite, Philippines. Okay, so I broke my own rule about not

enhancing photos! I have been chasing this bird with my camera for

over two years since moving to the Philippines. It is so elusive! It

shows up around my house about once every month or so, and when it

does show up, it stays for only about 15 minutes, during which most of

the time its brilliant blue wings are folded up, thwarting photo

opportunities. When it does fly, it flies very fast, making a photo

capture well-nigh impossible without super-quick fingers.

This guy had the courtesy to show up on a weekend when I am at home

and within close range of my camera. To ensure proper capture, I set

my camera to its maximum settings: 1/4000 of a second, ISO 3200,

continuous shooting... I recognize that the high ISO made him grainy,

but I was using a telephoto lens without excessively big aperture, so

I felt that I had to make the sensor as sensitive as possible. I

caught him in two separate flights -- in about two dozen pictures --

before he was gone again until next month. Only two were in focus,

yet neither had the sun on his back, which would have shown the true

brilliance of his actual color. So I broke down and tweaked the cyan

on his back a little bit in GIMP (after cropping, of course, to bring

him closer still). Still, I didn't have much to work with; it was

pretty dark to begin with.

Those of you with faster bird-shooting skills than I and better

PhotoShop skills than I, what would you have done differently (other

than bought a more expensive camera or lens)?