Noisy Miner

[Ian Colley]

These birds are around most of the year, during summer they seem to be more active in my area. Photographed early morning after a night of heavy rain.

Not sure if this is sharp enough, interested in your thoughts. Shutter speed was to slow to stop head movement I think. OOF tail also bothers me a little.

Olympus E500, 50-200mm, EC14
RAW, 1/200 F/4.9 ISO 400, Ap Priority 0 comp.
Levels, curves, smart sharpen. Cloned out leaves top left corner.

[Gautam Biswas]

Dear Ian, I like images like this where there is interaction between birds. To me the head seems OK, but I am looking on a laptop screen, you might have seen at 1:1 ratio. The BG is nice too.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I really like the interaction, poses, details and BG. I don't remember seeing this species before. Thanks for sharing.

[Arthur Morris]

Sharpness is pretty good as is the BKGR, COMP, and interaction. I like this one a lot. Do you know the full species name?

later and love and thaks for posting, artie

[Jim Poor]

Very nice. I think it is plenty sharp enough. If I look really hard, I see that the bird on the right is slightly sharper than the one on the left. To me, that is exactly as it should be if there is a choice to make between the two.

I might try a little selective sharpening on the face of the bird on the left and / or brighten that area up just a little.

Those are really tiny tiny nits though and I like it plenty just as presented.

[Sean McMahon]

Excellent composition. Great Capture. Plenty sharp on my monitor.

Comp is reminscent of an Audubon painting.

And nice bokeh.

I'm envious.

[David Steele]

This image jumps at you. Very sharp, well exposed, great colours, perfect cropping and superb interaction.

[Glenn Bartley]

Oh man. This is fantastic. To get 2 on the same perch and one calling makes this a real winner in my books. Great job!

[Peregrine Craig Nash]

I remember seeing these Noisy Miner Birds(Manorina melanocephala) in Sydney. I love the background . Lovely image.

[Ian Colley]

Thanks everyone, thanks for supplying the full name Craig. I gew up with these birds and we used to call them Soldier Birds, I have also heard them called squeakers in another part of the country.

[Thomas Block]

Interesting interaction, good comp and sharp enough. The focus is on the heads so I don’t care about the tails.

All the best
Thomas

[Tony Whitehead]

This is lovely, Ian. Great pose, light , action - the call with tongue out is great. Sharpness seems fine to me.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Congrats Ian,great pose,details,colors and BG!!!

[Jan Wegener]

wow, these are two fantastic looking birds !
no nits for me

[John Cooper]

Hi Ian - you have captured these two Miners in an interesting pose and both sharp where it counts. The diagonal perch and soft BG also add impact to the composition. Only nit is the slight blue cast on birds. Well done!!

[Simon Bennett]

This is great image Ian - I like the typical miner pose, flawless background and crispness. I agree with John - the greys are a bit too bluish.