The Four Judges, or caracara.caracara.caracara.caracara

[Bill Dix]

Crested Caracaras, from Martin Ranch in November. From a blind; birds attracted with frozen chicken parts. This shows the range of color in their facial skin.

D500, Sigma 150-600 @ 150mm; ISO 800, 1/2600s @ f/8 manual.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Cool, lining up for breakfast eh! Neat perch, and the cactus is a good addition. Interesting about the facial colours. If you have more room top and right that would be great.

[John Mack]

Very nice. Really like how everybody is looking in the same direction.

[Colin Driscoll]

Nice one, good exposure and detail. Is the skin color variation related to age? Couldn't find anything about that on a quick search.

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

Really neat repeating poses, strong sense of interest off to the right, cactus adds context. Sharp and well exposed.

I do agree with Daniel, just a bit more canvas would be nice.

Cheers

Randy

[Stuart Edwards]

WOW ! I thought i was lucky to have seen 2 at the same time. 4 on the same branch is fantastic !

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Bill, an opportunity well taken here, and all four looking in the same direction. Great that each shows a different facial colouration as you stated - interesting. Would this be male - female- juvie? Good DOF throughout the image, sharp, and a nice clean BG too.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Nicely captured, Bill. They couldn't have cooperated more for you. Beautiful detail, and good catchlight in each. Not a deal breaker, but the BG looks a tad too soft to me.

Geoffrey




https://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (https://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. The male and female of this species are very similar (female slightly larger) and can't realistically be determined in the field. The facial skin is interesting, in that its color can change depending on the bird's mood. Adult birds generally have a reddish-orange facial skin, as in the far left and far right birds (also yellow legs and horizontal barring on the chest). Juveniles have a pinkish color to the facial skin, grayish legs, and vertical breast streaking, as on the second bird from the left. The second from the right may be a sub-adult -- someone with more familiarity with these birds might know. We were told that the color change on the facial skin can be very rapid, changing from deep reddish orange to pumpkin color and then to yellow if the bird feels threatened or otherwise has a mood shift. That would suggest that the far right bird - the top dog - is the least threatened, and the others, vying for the same food source, are feeling some competitive pressure. (Maybe that's too much anthropomorphizing?)

I did crop tightly to focus on the birds. I'll look into expanding the comp a bit.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Nice Image. I agree adding more room at the top will help.

Thanks for sharing

[Bill Dix]

Here's a looser crop.

[David Salem]

Very cool Bill!! Not to often you can even get even two birds on the same focal plane, but four is awesome. Lots of nice colors and details too. Well done

[Bill Dix]

Thanks David.

[Alex Becker]

Pretty awesome to get four all lined up like this. I like the perch and the cactus is really nice. BG compliments well too. Personal preference but I might back off on the NR on the BG just a tad as to my eyes it looks a little too smooth. Cool to see the variation between these birds. Looks like the ranch trip worked out really well. TFS