Melanistic American Goldfinch

[gail bisson]

For the past month, this unusual goldfinch has been coming to my feeders. We call her Melania!!:bg3:
Unlike a leucistic or albino bird that lacks pigment, this little lady (or boy) has too much melanin.
She has been difficult to photograph well, as she prefers to feed on the ground. On this day, we had some overnight snow and she landed on the snow on the deck railing.
I am posting this mostly to show you the unusual subject as opposed to being a great image!
Canon 1 DX 600mm and 1.4 x
f 6.3 SS 1/640 ISO 1600
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[gail bisson]

For those BPN members who do not know what an American Goldfinch should look like.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

What a great looking variation and good pose, Gail. Nice BG with the smallest flakes of snow falling. Would love to see one of these in person.

Lovely capture of the usual winter plumage as well. Like the snow settled in the perch.

Geoffrey




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

[John Mack]

Very neat to see this. Something you don't see everyday. I like the composition and the pose on the bird.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Cool Image. I am see this for the first time.

TFS

[Isaac Grant]

Such a cool looking goldfinch. Glad you finally got a shot of it. I would lift the exposure a tiny bit on the bird and run a bit of NR on it as well.

[Bill Dix]

Truly unusual Goldfinch, with a great name.:S3: And a fine image. I've never seen one like it. Thanks for sharing it.

[Alex Becker]

This is really cool. Agree with some NR on the bird. I like the 'perch'. Nice to see the claws as well. TFS

[Jake Levin]

That's a first for me! I've only seen melanistic (black) squirrels and didn't know goldfinches could have the same pigmentation. It might be an unusual bird but the image is nicely captured, and he/she really stands out nicely against the white snow in the foreground. Only thing I would fix is the little orange speck of something-or-other in the snow below behind the bird.