Hood Mockingbird - Galápagos - Española

[Claude Ostfeld]

Hood Mockingbird, Mimus macdonaldi, also known as the Española Mockingbird.There are 4 species of Mockingbird that are endemic to the Galápagos. The Hood, Galápagos and San Cristobal Mockingbirds are fairly easy to see. The Floreana Mockingbird is the rarest and is difficult to see as it lives on an inaccessible islet close to Floreana Island.

Mockingbirds got their name as a result of their habit of mimicking the songs of other birds as well as the sounds of insects and frogs, often loudly and in rapid succession.

Charles Darwin's initial intuition about the ability of living species to adapt to different realities came as a result of noticing that there were differing species of mockingbirds on different islands of the Galápagos. All are related to the Chilean Mockingbird and yet the 4 species of the Galápagos differ visibly from one another just as they differ from the Chilean variety.

Nikon D300s
Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D IF-ED + TC14
280mm
1/800
f/14
ISO 400
0 EV
No Flash
Program Normal
Date and Time (Original) 2010:08:25 08:27:48 AMAs always critiques are very welcome.

Claude

[Katie Rupp]

Thanks Claude, for the background information, I always appreciate learning just a bit more. This one looks a little tight for me and I wish that the bird wasn't looking away. Nice inclusion of Galapagos habitat.

[Alan Murphy]

Nice detail in the bird. With so much darks in the image the noise is showing a bit.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Would be interested to know how much you cropped this image. Overall it is nice and a few improvements could make it even better. The head angle has been mentioned and I also find the dark bill merging with the rock a low spot.

Nice bird though.

[Claude Ostfeld]

Rather than trying to edit this image of the Hood Mockingbird I have uploaded another of the same taken about 20 seconds later.