Blue tit

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod head, Canon 7D Canon 100-400L ISO 400-0.3 1/1600 sec f7.1
Shot taken from my garden hide. I toned down the highlights a little as the light ambient light was bright.
All C&C welcome.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jon, a lovely variety of colours on this species, and I like how he is perched tightly between the two upright twigs. The BG looks great. Interesting to see the ring - I presume this guy is free and wild just visiting, so am wondering about the ring?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Jon, a lovely variety of colours on this species, and I like how he is perched tightly between the two upright twigs. The BG looks great. Interesting to see the ring - I presume this guy is free and wild just visiting, so am wondering about the ring?

Hi Stu, glad you liked it, the ring, hmm well your guess is probably as good as mine, I would imagine it had been ringed by a local group of the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology). The bird is as you noted completely free and wild. I had put food out but in this particular case the bird was facing in exactly the opposite direction and I caught him between poses.

[Satish Ranadive]

Jonathan,
Magnificent image.Wonderful frame.Love the pose,look of the bird,colors with nice details,perch and beautiful BG.
Is it migratory bird? Is data available with you;for what purpose and when this bird was ringed and where?

Regards,
Satish.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Jonathan,
Magnificent image.Wonderful frame.Love the pose,look of the bird,colors with nice details,perch and beautiful BG.
Is it migratory bird? Is data available with you;for what purpose and when this bird was ringed and where?

Regards,
Satish.

Satish unfortunately I cannot help you with the questions in any detail. The blue tit is indigenous, I presume they would migrate between mainland Europe and UK if they had good reason to.

[Randy Stout]

Jonathan:

Very perky pose, light the catchlight, I would prefer not to have the two small stubs near the body. Well exposed.

The head looks a bit soft.

Very detailed perch, lichen helps add interest. I do wish more of it was infocus. When I put up a perch, I try to get it as parallel to the sensor as possible to keep as much of it in focus as possible.

I must admit, that a lot of the most interesting perches aren't straight, so this isn't easy to do in practice, but at least that is what I shoot for!

Cheers

Randy

[Gerald Kelberg]

Nice image, Jonathan! Delightful little fellow, and interesting the way the colour of the bird balances the colour of the background below the branch. I like the lichen on the branch as well.

I wonder if you couldn't get the colours a little brighter - maybe toned down the highlights a bit much?

It seems that they are quite sedentary, typically not moving more than 10 kilometers from home, although some do travel a bit further afield.

Regards,

Gerald

[Ben_Sadd]

I like the image but feel the bird's colours are somewhat lacking. It could be that the colours are true and it is a young bird or late season, but I think it doesn't really represent the normal colours of a blue tit. If you are happy with the colours I agree that a little bit of brightening on the bird would not be a bad thing.

[gail bisson]

Hi Jonathan,
I like the light and the pose and the perch. Great lichens/mosses on it.
I find the head a bit soft unfortunately.
I would crop from the left to get rid of the vertical twig as well,
Gail

[Morkel Erasmus]

lovely colours here
I agree the head looks a tad soft
adding some midtone contrast to the bird only will add some pop!

[dankearl]

Beautiful light and subject. The bird does look a tad soft, maybe a bit more sharpening?
The perch is very nice.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks again everyone, i appreciate your comments. Regards the colour of the bird, I agree it does look relatively dull, I did in fact prepare another image where I boosted saturation slightly and I also added selective colour to the blacks and neutrals, sure enough it did make the bird look more impressive. At this time of year though most of the garden birds are not displaying such attractive plumage. I will keep my eyes open for something a little more colourful.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I am with Morkel regarding the extra sharpness needed on face and the contrast boost.