Crested Caracara

[Joseph Przybyla]

Dottie and I went to a location I was recently told about, 10 Mile Grade Road in Hardee County, Florida. While we did not see many variety of birds on todays venture, we did see more Caracara's than ever before. This image is of a juvenile captured this morning. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering +1/3 EV ISO 400 AWB, Continuous autofocus, single focus point, active focus point on the lower bill and upper neck
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC, burnt and lowered the highlights slightly on the legs
Cropped from horizontal to vertical for composition and presentation

[Isaac Grant]

Image quality is very nice. I love the colors and the background as well. Pose is great and the eye looks sharp. Very nice color palette. My only wish is that it was not on a man made post and that maybe there was more room on the right for the bird to look into.

[Tim Foltz]

Joseph, great looking bird, nice BG, sharp… I just wish it wasn't so centered.

-Tim

[Joseph Przybyla]

Isaac and Tim, thank you for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated. I work up a couple versions most times using Lightroom's... Create Virtual Copy. Here is a 2x3 with more room on the right.

Isaac, I also wish it was not a fencepost but it is rare to find them on another perch. Most of central Florida is either wetlands, citrus groves or pasture lands. Fence post are most prominent and birds take advantage using them.

[stuart wanuck]

joe liked first version agree on post but no other option nice

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Very nice pose and head turn on this beauty, Joseph. Excellent detail, with beautiful pastel BG.

Geoffrey

PS. Like both posts.

[annmpacheco]

Hi Joe, what a lovely image of this juvenile you have captured, love the head turn and the BG. I like your OP, so well done!

[keith mitchell]

Hi Joe,they both look good but would still go for something between the two,I am fine with the perch it would be so nice to get them to land on the perch of our choosing ,nice pose and good feather detail well done getting this.

Keith.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.