Ruffed Grouse

[Steve Maxson]

This male ruffed grouse was photographed from a blind in early May during its drumming display which they use to advertise their territory and attract mates. This activity is usually most intense very early in the morning though they will drum at other times of day and at night. Depending on when during the drum you take the photo, the wings can be completely sharp, slightly blurred (as here), or totally blurred. These birds prefer early-successional forests (i.e., lots of vertical stems) which makes getting a clean background difficult. Those males that choose to use drumming logs in more open habitats are often picked off by predators. 40D, 70-200 f/2.8 IS at 200mm + 1.4X, 1/50, f/5.0, ISO 400. Comments are welcome.

[Ramon M. Casares]

I love the natural moment captured, the pose, the BG loks good enought to me, and light, colors and detail are great, the only thing that doesn't really works fro me (personal taste matter) is the square crop.
Congratulations!

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Thanks for the backstory, it always adds to the image. How do they actually make the "drumming" noise?

In regard to the image. The first thing that struck me was that because the coloration and brightness of the bird and BG are fairly close, that he isn't as distinct from the background as I would like. I know he is suppose d to blend in, but it makes it harder to view him. I might suggest trying one of two strategies.

I would select the bird, and either brighten him a bit, or use a reverse selection and darken the background a bit. Even a combination of these could be used. Darkening the BG would also reduce the slightly busy feel to it as well.

I appreciate Ramon's comment re: the crop, but because the bird somewhat works the diagonal, I am OK with it. If anything, I might crop up just a tiny bit from the bottom.

Thanks for sharing, hope to see more of this series.

Randy

[Grace Scalzo]

I'm going to go out on a limb here (sorry, bad pun) and say that I love this exactly as it is. Your image shows how the bird matches his environment which is as it is supposed to be. The behaviour is exceptional, and rarely captured, plus you have a beautiful eye. If anything, I think I'd try sharpening the head, esp around the beak every so slightly more. Fine work, imho.

[Dave Leroy]

Very nice Steve. The bg does not bother me, adds to the deep woods feel. It looks like a really nice job and the bird's colours. Good for you to have the bird this close. Dave

[Steve Maxson]

Steve:

Thanks for the backstory, it always adds to the image. How do they actually make the "drumming" noise?

In regard to the image. The first thing that struck me was that because the coloration and brightness of the bird and BG are fairly close, that he isn't as distinct from the background as I would like. I know he is suppose d to blend in, but it makes it harder to view him. I might suggest trying one of two strategies.

I would select the bird, and either brighten him a bit, or use a reverse selection and darken the background a bit. Even a combination of these could be used. Darkening the BG would also reduce the slightly busy feel to it as well.

I appreciate Ramon's comment re: the crop, but because the bird somewhat works the diagonal, I am OK with it. If anything, I might crop up just a tiny bit from the bottom.

Thanks for sharing, hope to see more of this series.

Randy
Hi Randy. Thanks for your comments (and also those from Ramon, Grace, and Dave). Interesting that you would suggest selecting the bird and brightening it/darken the background. Actually, I have already done exactly that. :) As I was working on the image, I thought that making the bird any brighter or the background any darker started to make things look rather unnatural. I could go back and revisit that. As to the crop - normally, I would like a little more room on the left, but in this case there was nothing of interest on that side of the frame so I chose to crop as presented.

According to what I have read, the drumming noise that one hears during this display is caused by the air rushing in to fill the vacuum created by the rapidly beating wings.

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Thanks for the extra info, and the comments on your post work. After I made my comments, I did work on your image a bit, along the lines I mentioned. I came to the conclusion that it was as good as it was going to get on the point that I mentioned. It did look unnatural if I pushed it further than you had already done (which of course I didn't know you had done already!)

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

Great behavioral image, head nice an sharp and the wings convey the feeling of movement!

[Kobus Tollig]

Ok here is my 2c.
I'm looking at a bird I have never seen. And the image tells me that this bird is not easy to spot because of his camo. Thus making this image great as is in my opinion. If its a common bird and easy to spot oooops sorry hehehe.
I like this well done

[Stu Bowie]

Steve, thanks for the info, and a great behavioural shot to illustrate the point. Lovely detail, and colours, and Im going with Grace regarding to sharpen the head a tad more.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Wow.. Beautiful Image.. Loved the greatpose and feel of the image..