Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

[Bill Dix]

This handsome fellow was among a diverse group of species in a small, very productive but doomed wetland area near the Panama City airport. When I was there in March of 2012, the marsh area was about to be bulldozed in the name of progress. I'm probably not going out on a limb to suggest that habitat destruction is the greatest single cause of the declining populations of most bird species. I'm glad I saw this one while I could. My Panama guide book shows him listed as rare except on a few offshore Pacific islands.

D7000, 80-400 VR @ 370mm, ISO 800, 1/800s @ f/6.3 manual; HH; large crop from horizontal.

[Karl Egressy]

Habitat destruction has been going on everywhere, unfortunately. Nice finding and a nice image, Bill.
The head might need one more round of sharpening, or my eyes are bad this afternoon.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Bill,
Nice find and good separation from the BG. I am wanting a bit more sharpness on the throat area mostly.....but easy tweak. All in all a nice one with VG light!

[Loi Nguyen]

Beautiful bird in good light. Head angle is not ideal, but eye is still visible, another vote for more sharpening. Not sure where the AF was, but the image looks just a bit soft to my eye.

[Shawn Zierman]

Great looking heron in some fairly nice slightly off angle light quality. The image quality is not up to your usual, but large crop noted, and I get that you are jazzed about the sighting. The legs look strange with one thicker than the other...also, there is a strange vertical line in the water about half an inch above the bird's tail...anyway, congrats on the find. Sorry to hear about the loss of habitat.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Admittedly not my finest -- hand held at considerable distance -- but he was a nice bird in nice light and I was glad to see him. Shawn, I think we're seeing one of the legs from the back and the other turned a bit sideways. I'm not sure what strange line you're seeing. [edit: now I do see the line; not sure what it is. When I blow it up large, it looks like a series of tiny water drops???? I've fixed it in this edit.] Here's a repost with more sharpening throughout. The OP was soft; hope this doesn't go too far. (Curiously, this seems to be bordering on over-sharp when I look at the jpeg from my drive, but still a little soft when uploaded on the Preview Post. I guess the IQ just isn't there.

[Iain Barker]

Nice image Bill.

The repost defiantly improves the sharpness of the head for me.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice sighting and an OK photo of this rarity. Issues noted, and the repost is indeed an improvement.