Sora

[Richard Stern]

Easy to hear but hard to see, this bird gave me about 5 seconds of viewing while heading from one dense clump of reeds to another, and I managed to capture a few pictures. Taken at a local marsh this morning, Canada Day.

D7000, 300 f/4 AF-S + 1.7TC. No crop. Minor adjustments in lr. Manual exposure, 1/500 at f/6.7, ISO 500, pattern metering.

Richard

[PhilCook]

Interesting, over here we seem to have the same bird but we called them Spotted Crakes, and yes darting into the reeds does not make this species easy....darn birds !

Showing it's distinctive patterns nicely and water looks good, light was a bit harsh sadly and I think you may be able to get away with a touch more sharpening

[Jeff Dyck]

Happy Canada Day Richard. It's always great to even see one of these elusive birds - even better to get a photo of one in the open. I do agree with Phil - the harsh light is very evident in the shot - a little fill flash might have helped you out. I think a bit of "eye doctoring" to even out the red may also help. The viewing angle seems pretty steep - I think the image would have benefitted if you would been able to get lower (but do understand that this just isn't always an option...). My eye is drawn to the strange darker green line in front of the bird - a shadow?

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Richard - nice to see and good points by Phil and Jeff above.

TFS,
Rachel