Singing Australian magpie

[Jan Wegener]

Hey guys,

I more or less settled down in Australia. Still need a car though. With the lack of mobility, I decided to walk to the local park and try for some birds there. Besides hundreds of people with dogs I found this magpe, who gave me agreat morning concert. As the surrounding was not so nice I went for a head portrait.

1D Mark IV
600 IS
F8
ISo 400
1/640

[Tony Whitehead]

Good job on this portrait, Jan. Lovely singing pose, eye and BG and you have managed the exposure well to keep detail in the whites and blacks. Auz is great for birds - looking forward to a week in Queensland shortly.

[Jim Neiger]

Nice portrait. I like the open bill and the red eye. The song of this bird is very interesting. I can almost hear it now just looking at your image.

[Doug Brown]

Great singing pose, nice eye contact, and perfect DOF/sharpness. Not sure what these birds look like in person but the whites look a little gray as posted.

[Arthur Morris]

Superb head angle, EXP, and framing. Some bill clean-up on the far end of the upper mandible would likely improve this. Did you try any verticals at this range???

[Ofer Levy]

Fantastic exposure, sharpness and etail. I feel the composition is not really working for me though. I would move the bird a bit more to the left with the beak pointing to the upper left corner.

[Gerard Satherley]

Wonderful image. Excellent details, timing and exposure.

[Jan Wegener]

@ Artie,

I tried, but it didn't really work out. Woud have worked if the bird would have raised the head a bit steeper...

I did some bill clean up, but was not sure how the end of the beak looks in reality, so idecided to leave that part as it is :)

@ Ofer: I start to feel the same...This is more or less full frame, but I have a bit more to the right in the original frame. That might be eniugh. I found it kind of hard to compose this image. And the bird was in a kinda fluffed up and not realy posing :)

[Stu Bowie]

Great job on the exposure Jan, and overall, tack sharp. I really like the singing pose.

[Nico Steenberg]

Great sharpness and eye. Exposure is nailed !

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Hi Jan, welcome to Australia mate! That is a top image of one of my favorite birds, a family of Magpies have owned our home for 22 years and kindly let us live in it as long as they can pop in for meals at will.

Where are you Jan, I live in Melbourne.


Great singing pose, nice eye contact, and perfect DOF/sharpness. Not sure what these birds look like in person but the whites look a little gray as posted.

Doug all Magpies start life with a mottled grey back and depending where you are in Australia, the Males mature with a bright white back and the Females remain mottled, this one may well be an almost mature male with shades of grey still in the plumage of the back. http://www.publish.csiro.au/samples/austmagpiesample.pdf

They are wonderful birds with a wide range of songs and many imitations of other bird calls. Photo shows male "whiteback" evicting evicting last years young (rough love) prior to breeding this year

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[Jan Wegener]

I live in melbourne, too :)

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the info Christopher!

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

PM with contact info sent Jan