Chinese Hwamei aka Painted Eyebrow

[Jay Shah]

The Chinese hwamei or melodious laughingthrush bird (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird) of eastern Asia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia). in the family Leiothrichidae (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiothrichidae). The name "hwamei" comes from the Chinese (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language) and means "painted eyebrow referring to the distinctive marking around the bird's eyes. The species is a popular cagebird (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cagebird) in China because of its attractive song.

The image was taken from a hide in Central China. It was cropped and processed by PSCC2017 and Neat Image for noise reduction.

Nikon D500 600 F4
f/7.1, 1/100, ISO 1600

[John Mack]

Cool looking bird, like the looking back pose. I feel the image could be cropped more from the top right.

[Jay Shah]

Thank you John.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Neat bird, and vertical was the way to go here. Considering the low shutter speed and the "bold" BG patterns I would have photographed wide-open to give more SS and render the BG somewhat smoother.

[Jay Shah]

Thanks Daniel. Yes, wide open would have helped to render better bokeh, higher SS or lower ISO. But these clicks were split second, no time to change settings.