Blue-headed Vireo

[Bill Dix]

This cute little bespectacled fellow can be heard in the north woods, with a call that sounds like a slowed-down Red-eyed Vireo. But like his cousin the Yellow-throated Vireo, he has generally evaded my lens, spotted only high up in the trees and buried in foliage. Going through old files from a 2017 visit to Magee Marsh, I found this frame that I had forgotten about and never processed. A few other frames had his tail behind a tree or his head turned away, so this was the best of the bunch. Removed a few twigs.

D500, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 2500, 1/1250s @ f/6.3 manual.

[Colin Driscoll]

Nice to get the furtive canopy dwellers. Good light and sure you would wish for better all sorts of things, but the shot shows the bird off well.

[gail bisson]

Nice little bird.
Your cloning work is good.
I like the slightly cocked head.
In a perfect world the bird would have been more parallel to the sensor but a great bird to get on camera!
Gail

[Brian Sump]

Bill, such a beautiful bird and the pastel colors in the bkg compliment beautifully.

I assume you masked the bird here? The outline seems very abrupt on the chest and, inversely the fine feathers around the underside seem to have a halo (not sharpening halo, but a contrasty halo). Curious if you are you using smart radius or any feathering?

Could just be my eyes too.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Very nice capture, Bill. Like his angle towards you, and the soft light.


Geoffrey




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

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. Brian, I did feather the selection as I always do. But I can see the two areas you refer to, and suspect that in this case I didn't feather enough. If I remember correctly, I also slightly darkened the BG and ran a slight Tonal Contrast on the bird, which could have exacerbated the edge conditions if I didn't feather enough.