Sparrow

[Jim Crosswell]

The sparrows are everywhere here and are often overlooked. Thought I would post this common bird and give everyone a break from my Chickadees. This was taken on a set-up in my backyard. The BG is out of focus fall leaves. All C&Cs are welcome and appreciated.

Canon 40D
500L F/4
1.4 TC
ISO 400
f/8
1/1000s
Tripod

[Mital Patel]

class image. wish the tail would have been also in focus with a bit higher dof compared to what razor sharp the face and body is.

[Stu Bowie]

Who could forget that perch:cool: Just love the crinkled effect. Good detail on the sparrow Jim, sharp where it counts, and you have a good complimentary BG too.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Jim, I love good shots of common birds. We just forget how beautiful they are. Loved the alert pose, light and details.

[Pieter de Waal]

Good to see the Sparrows getting a mention Jim and what a handsome fellow he is. As mentioned nice and sharp with a great background.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Man, you're getting alot of mileage from that perch! I absolutely love the BG here. Awesome perky pose from this fella. I like the House Sparrows too as far as physical beauty goes...but too bad this Old World introduced species is so aggressive towards are native species.

[Paul Guris]

The bird image is great and I love the shape of the perch, but the reflection off the large pale patch on the left is really grabbing my eye. Maybe its just because the coloration of the subject is so subtle. it may also be due to the fact that my left eye is perfect for reading while my right eye is perfect for distance, so the bright spot hits me in my reading eye.

Daniel, if you haven't read the article in Birding magazine, one nice thing about House Sparrows in cities is that they are a major food source for urban nesting American Kestrels. In fact, New York City has multiple pairs (I think several dozen) and they are all near concentrations of House Sparrows. They're still a problem with Bluebirds and other species of course, but at least there's one silver lining. Plus it gives Kestrels a place to nest away from Cooper's Hawks whose recent population increase seems to be a major issue in Kestrel population decrease.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Love the subject pose and the BG. Well done Jim for showing a common bird in his full beauty.

[Danny J Brown]

Jim,

Excellent shot of the house sparrow and Paul has some great points as to something good that can come from this introduction. Your image shows all of the subtle color changes across a common sparrow's body that I like so much. I've tried to shoot as many sparrows as I can find in Missouri because I just love them. Really cool perch here, by the way. Thanks.

DB

[Troy Lim]

Love the image as is...TFS.

[Andreas Lentfer]

Jim,
I like to photograph this species too and must say, your picture is really very well done!!
Regards
Andreas.