That's a Mouthful: Yellow-crowned Parrot on Kapok Tree

[Bill Dix]

I thought this was interesting, despite a few technical shortcomings. The parrot has opened up one of the football-sized seed pods of the Kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra), and is gleaning the oil-rich black seeds from the fluff. Shot from a skiff in the Peruvian Amazon last month.

D7200, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 2500, 1/800s @ f/7.1 manual, Gitzo monopod.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good behaviour witnessed and photographed indeed. The exposure looks fine, as does the comp. Fine detail looks a bit lost, but well focussed - perhaps a big crop? I also see a bluish cast most noticeable on the branches. Warming up the WB would be good IMO.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks for the comments, Daniel. This was not a huge crop -- full height cropped from horizontal. But as with all of these shots from our Amazon trip, it was taken using a monopod, from a skiff with 9 or 10 other people in it. Every time any one of those people moved, the boat would rock, throwing off my focus point and risking some motion blur, and I couldn't always get enough SS to counteract it. I've warmed this up a bit, and although I still see some blue in the branches, I think it does look better. And I tried to tweak just a little more detail out of the parrot.

[Karen Pleasant]

The repost is a nice improvement! Splendid catch on this one, especially considering the conditions you faced. Quite interesting behavior. The diagonals in the comp form a solid comp.

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful and unique capture with great composition! Sounds heroic that you were able to even keep him in the frame with a rocking boat and that much magnification. I'd guess the high ISO has cost some resolving power, and maybe heat and humidity has contributed to some loss of detail. All things considered, no nits from me!

[gail bisson]

Great behavioral shot.
I would clone out the tree branch under the tail.
Gail

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Neat behavioral capture, Bill. Like the ripping apart of the seedpod. Improved nicely in repost.




Geoffrey

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for your comments.