Bourke's Parrot

[Simon Bennett]

Bourke's Parrot photographed near Cunnamulla, south-west Queensland. These birds are uncommon birds of the arid Australian interior.

Canon 40D, EF500 f/4 + 1.4 tc, 580EX flash, tripod, Evaluative, Av, f/5.6, 1/200, ISO400, fec -1 1/3. Slight crop for composition, a prominent dead branch just to right of bird digitally pruned, along with some other twigs.

[Colin Driscoll]

Lovely image Simon, these birds have such subtle colors. Unfortunately I've only seen them flying over out at Cunnamulla. I think I would have done one more bit of pruning and removed the last small twig under the bird. Excellent BG too.

[Leo Berzins]

Another gem from your recent Queensland trip, Simon.

Great pose in a sharp, well exposed image of this beautiful little parrot that is not easy to find in the wild, let alone photograph.

I agree with Colin on the removal of the lower twig.

[Krijn Trimbos]

Lovely species, good colours nice BG and sharpness in most of the bird. I think however there is something weird going on with the sharpness of the perch and the end of the tail did you forget to shapen some of the image or did you use quick mask to paste some pieces of another shot into this one??? Apart from that very nice, congrats on getting this rarity.

[Rob Drummond]

Great shot Simon - you seem to be copping a bit of flak over the twig (sorry) but I think it adds something to the perch.

cheers
Rob

[David Fletcher]

Lovely image Simon. Not too fussed about the twig, but I do think the point of focus is on the wing and wonder if some selective sharpening on the head can help. Killer bg btw.

[Chris Kotze]

Super colours and pose and a great BG. Another vote to remove the twig

[Ramon M. Casares]

Lovely species, BG, pose, perch, light, detail, colors and sharpness. I loved this one.
Congratulaitons!

[Stu Bowie]

Super pose, and I like the feather detail in this. Lovely complimentary colours in the BG too. I would maybe lighten the eye a tad.

[Simon Bennett]

Thank you all for you comments. I only managed to get one burst of images of this bird before it flew off. I do think the focus is on the wing, and so the face is not quite as sharp, though oddly the eye does look relatively well defined, perhaps the uniformly structured (soft) feathers around the face are adding to the effect. I did apply a around of high-pass sharpening which I have found works well with scalloped feathering. The only thing I did do to the branch on the right was to darken it a bit with the burn tool.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I like the BG and colors. Nice soft light. I'd leave the thin branch underneath. Funnily, I was thinking of the headsharpness when I viewed it first. Probably could have stopped down a little since you were on a tripod (not you, the rig) :)
Thanks for sharing.

[Dr.Pranay Rao Juvvadi]

Wow! An uncommon bird on an open perch and with a beautiful BG, I'd be really content with such a result. You guys have a great variety of parrots in Austrailia, would love to see some pictures of Rosellas.

[sree.kumar.h]

Like the details and colours in the image. The subtle rose on the belly make the image. Wish the complete tail was in focus.