Northern Flicker

[Mike Veltri]

While photographing a Pine warbler last week, this Northern Flicker flew in an perched on the stalk of some mullen to my suprise.
http://www.pbase.com/mikeveltri/image/114548918.jpg
Canon 40D
Canon 500mm F/4 IS
Canon 1.4x II
1/200s
F/6.3
ISO 400
Fill Flash -1 1/3

Thanks for looking
Mike Veltri

[Ilija Dukovski]

Excellent pose, nice eye contact.
I like the bird very much.
I think it needs more contrast,
blacks slide in ACR for example.
Maybe more saturation too.
Also the eye has flash feature,
I'm not sure if you could do anything
about it.

[Bruce Enns]

Great shot Mike! I like the pose, the eye contact, sharpness, the background and the comp. I also like the yellow shafts peeking out. It looks like your sharpest focus is on the shoulder, so I might try a bit more sharpening around the eye. All in all, I like it a lot!

By the looks of her bill, she was pretty busy at something...

Cheers!
Bruce

[Gal Shon]

Very nice of her...
It turned out great.

[Dave Leroy]

Good for you. From my experience they are a finicky bird and hard to get close or a clear shot. I like the comp. I might also try a bit more contrast/saturation to draw out bird a bit more. Well done. Dave

[David Fletcher]

Very nice shot Mike. Clean and simple and easy on the eye. Like suggestions made.

[Mark Dumbleton]

Stunning looking bird. Like the vertical comp here and OOF BG. I would also add a but of contrast and saturation.

[Ramon M. Casares]

I like it, nice pose, soft light, BG is great, comp is very nice too, colors and detail are very good! Congratulations!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Quite lovely.
I would not change anything here. Congrats.