As Common as they get.

[dankearl]

Sort of continuing on the Arthur Morris theme about making the most of common birds.
I saw this female Mallard in a stream this morning while looking for more interesting subjects,
took this photo and I liked it better than any other bird I saw today.

1/400, f7.1, iso640, 600mm, D800, Handheld.
About 80% of full frame, cropped for Comp.

DSC_5413bp2.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=128531&stc=1&d=1368912954)

[Karl Egressy]

As someone said;, " A good picture of a common bird is much better than a marginal one of a rare one"
Nice image, Dan, love the pose and the perch.

[Robert Holguin]

Just love it!!!
Everything come together very well to produce a beautiful image.
Great pose, love the color of the background, and excellent details.
Well done.

[Grace Scalzo]

I love it too, nice perch, great depth of field, eye contact, etc. Pleasing image, glad you did not overlook this common beauty.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image of common one.
Looks like she has posed only for you.I like the interesting curved perch beautiful backdrop on which bird pops up nicely.
Love the pose,colors and details.

Regards,
Satish.

[Jim Thomas]

Every time someone mentions a bird as being common, or 'it's just a whatever", I can't help but think that people probably said the same thing about passenger pigeons. Anyway, nice capture. BG and perch look great. The duck looks a bit soft on feather detail like focus was on the perch.

Jim

[mohammad reza shahab]

Excellent image.
Great pose, love the color of the background, and excellent details.

[Mike Landwehr]

A gorgeous female mallard against a really lovely background. I'm not accustomed to seeing mallards perched, rather that on the water, or walking, which adds interest to the photo for me. A great head angle, and really lovely light on the feathers.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, I really like the light in this, and she seems to have given you a proud pose. Good view of the purple speculum, and the perch has lots of little bits to look over. Yep, this certainly turned out well.

[gail bisson]

Hi Dan,
Can't find a single improvement to suggest!
Sweet perch and perfect HA.
Gail

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Common but elegant Dan! Nicely done. I'm with Gail, nothing to improve IMO :)

Miguel

[Girish Prahalad]

wonderful image! tack sharp with a superb BG & perch.

[RichardCurtin]

Very nice photo. Sharp, interesting perch, and the green background is perfect.