Cactus Wren on ocotillo branch

[Bruce Spell]

http://home.comcast.net/~bruce_spell/cactuswren_3640.jpg

Taken locally in Tucson, Az at Saguaro National Park last January.
Olympus E5, 90-250 + EC 20 (500 mm on Oly 2X sensor for 1000 mm effective FOV), f/7.1, 1/1000, ISO 200 using a monopod with a gimbal head attached.

My first post to the Avian forum. I've posted a couple of previous shots in the ETL forum but wanted to test out this one as well. Comments and critique gladly accepted.

[Lyle Gruby]

IQ on the head looks good, although I do wish for more DOF on the tail. That's a very nice perch, and I like the background. A head turn towards us and shooting in more flattering light would improve the image.

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful image of beautiful bird. I like the pose,nice details,perch and composition. Love the frame.
Image do have some magenta color cast.

Regards,
Satish.

[Marina Scarr]

Super looking bird, background and interesting perch. The head needs a little more sharpening. It's too bad the bird didn't look at you b/c it would make this image much stronger.

[Robert Holguin]

Nice shot.
I really like the perch and nice background.
Agree on better head angle.
Well done.

[Bruce Spell]

I really appreciate all the great input. Recurring message is head angle is not optimum. I'll have to work on my bird whispering talent to get them to turn slightly. I actually do have one or two with his head more in my direction but unfortunately he blinked or I missed focus on those frames. I'll keep trying.

As to the color cast, what could introduce that in this image? Could that be from the light conditions at time of capture? Since I am nearly colorblind I try not to alter colors or hues in post. It also means I sometimes miss things that are obvious to others when they look at my images. After seeing this comment I went back to my PSD and tried to use a levels adjustment layer to see if I could eliminate the color cast. By using the gray eyedropper I was able to shift the overall color more to green (which I can see when I look at before/after) but not sure if that's too much of an over correction or not.

Since I don't usually try to alter color balance in the RAW developing or the PS processing is there something I should read up on to know if there's an obvious color cast in an image? Could I be doing something in my workflow to be introducing it? I generally only crop, do a quick shadow/highlight adjustment (if necessary), a background noise reduction, and output sharpening before posting.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great subject and perch, awesome background. A bit more sharpening to the bird's body would work well, at least for web presentation. Head agnle noted, and it is the number one negative here. Sometimes something as simple as pishing does the trick (sort of a kissing noise with your lips). As for the cast, I saw it too before reading it pointed out. I am not sure how you would notice a colour cast if you are colour blind...I have a friend locally who is colour blind too and he relies on his wife for colour balance and other colour issues.