Squacco heron (Ardeola ralloides)

[Juan Aragonés]

A squacco heron from my last outing in Doñana National Park (Southwestern Spain). C&C highly apreciated.:)

Nikon D2X AFS Nikkor 300VR +1,4XTC, croped to vertical, f5,6 1/750s, handheld from car ISO 320

[Jim Poor]

I like it. The color in the FG, the log and the green all come together real nice. I might work on some of the more gray/brown bits here and there.

The bird itself is really cool looking.

[Robert O'Toole]

Nice Juan!
The Squacco is on my must do list I have always wanted to see this sp. This bird is in intense breeding plumage and colors. the light is very soft and the sharpness is good. The green grass makes a great BG.

I would do NR on the BG to improve clean it up and improve the image even more.

Robert

[Doug Brown]

Very nice Juan! I agree with Robert that the BG, while pretty, needs some PP; the texture looks kind of funny. Beautiful bird with excellent detail.

[Juan Aragonés]

Robert and Doug you are right, the BG has an obvious flaw in the form of noise that I forget to remove Oh my god, I can believe that I didn´t noticed that.... ooops I am growing much older that I would like

Here is a repost but now I am at the office and worked on the reduced jpg version.
Robert if you like this species you can see more images in the following links of teh European and Spain/Latamerica forum http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11382 (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11382) http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11767 (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11767)
I will post most images from the same species because we had a lot of luck with squaccos in Doñana, lots of cooperative birds in different ages/plumages/actions etc.

[Raymond Barlow]

fantastic image Juan, Congrats. What a cool looking bird.