We saw quite a few of these incredibly beautiful birds flying, perched in various trees, on the ground, etc., but almost never under favorable light conditions! We saw this one early one morning, with very bright, white sky behind it, creating a real exposure challenge. I took several shots with ambient light alone, inevitably either blowing out the background or underexposing the Macaw. I then used my flash (with Flash Exposure Lock to get appropriate exposure for the bird alone), and cut down the ambient light exposure considerably to prevent the bright skies from completely blowing out the background.