Red-breasted Nuthatch Observation ?

[Jonathan J. Weber]

I am fairly new to photographing birds with a DSLR. The breast color of this Nuthatch near my suet feeder today seems very light colored. Is it possible this could be a female, or perhaps an individual in a molting phase? I wasn't aware that the sexes for this species could be differentiated, until I just read the CornellLab description.

Your comments would be most appreciated.

Jonathan

Canon 50D, EF 100-400, ISO 1250, f/6.3, 1/100


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2/Jonathan64/Birds%20-%20Local/Nuthatches/IMG_60402.jpg (http://s44.photobucket.com/user/Jonathan64/media/Birds%20-%20Local/Nuthatches/IMG_60402.jpg.html)

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Jonathan, welcome to BPN. You will get useful advice from folks on this forum and if you are willing to put in the time, you will learn a lot. I was a newbie too, just picked up my first DSLR 2 years ago. First, your image is a bit small. at 96 dpi, you can post an image with 1200 pixel on the horizontal or 900 max on the vertical. The light was a bit harsh and you blew the whites. Did you shoot in Auto or Manual? the background isn't ideal with streaks of bright. Ideally, you would like the bird to turn its head slightly towards you. 1/100 SS is quite low, hard to really get a very sharp image unless you are very good. Loi

[Grace Scalzo]

Good morning, Jonathan. Welcome to BPN. I live in the oppositie corner of NY State from you, and look forward to seeing more images from your neck of the woods. (Like two different worlds!) Your bird is on a nice perch and the background colors are soft and don't compete with him. Loi has made a good point regarding your shutter speed. Even with a perched bird, you have to do what you can to increase it, especially hand held. Keep posting, reading, and studying and you will see great improvement.

[Jonathan J. Weber]

Is this the proper forum to continue my comments on this photo, or should I redirect my hand raising in this birding class to PM's?

Thank you.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Jonathan, belated welcome to BPN!

Not sure I understand your question directly above, but for the plumage colours there can be some variation form individual to individual. Freshly molted individuals tend to be in more vivid colours, but yes, the female of this species tends to be paler in general to the male. "Worn" individuals can also have paler feathers that have been slightly faded by being out in the sun all that time.

If you have specific "non critique" questions about birds (ID, behaviour, field marks, etc...) we have a very informative forum for that here:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/forumdisplay.php/58-Avian-About-Birds

As for the image itself you got some good comments and suggestions already.

[Jonathan J. Weber]

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for your comments on color, and for those perfect directions to the classroom I was looking for. As a newbie, I'll be much more comfortable over there. Much appreciated.

Jonathan

[Daniel Cadieux]

You're quite welcome Jonathan!

We also have a critique forum called "Eager to Learn" that is perfect for you should you wish to have some of your images critiqued.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/forumdisplay.php/7-Eager-To-Learn

Don't be shy if you have any other questions, we're here to help you.