.....i got a lucky shot of a similar looking falconidae bird, a yellow headed caracara, also just dumb luck.....i happened to glance out my window and saw a figure a bit obscured by the foliage of the tree it was in....i went outside and got a clean view of the caracara sitting about 5 meters from me with nothing behind it but open sky....i ran back in for the nikon with the 500mm and the bird was in the same spot when i got back out.....i cranked off 2 or 3 shots before it took off. to be honest, anytime i get a good shot, it's luck.
note: with all that open sky behind it, had i been using the default metering mode (which i never use) the bird would have been so under-exposed it would have been reduced to a silhouette. unless i set it up completely manual for flash photography, my camera is always set to spot meter the scene, and the spot that it takes the reading of light from is the single point AF point, which is always (as best as my shaky hands allow) over the eye of my subject. the only thing i let the camera choose is the ISO. depending on the darkness or brightness of the eye and the darkness or brightness of the area around the eye, i dial in + or - exposure compensation....luckily i had been shooting squirrel monkeys previously, and the setting worked great in this instance.
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