Restless Flycatcher

[Colin Driscoll]

I chose to leave the two small twigs because they were sort of symmetrical- what would you have done?
This bird has a colloquial name of 'Scissors Grinder' because of the grinding nature of one of its calls. That name is embedded in history harking back to the days when tradesmen would call around to peoples homes to sharpen their scissors and knives. What a different era!

50D 100-400 @ 400 1/400 f6.3 ev0 iso400 430EXII -2/3 plus beamer

[Randy Stout]

Colin:

Thanks for the history of his local name, fun stuff.

Nice dorsal view. He is angled a bit away from us.

The crown of the head looks a bit soft, perhaps a bit more sharpening there.

I might consider a crop down from the top, about half way down the little twig there, and if you have it, a sliver more room to the right.

The background is very interesting, like the swirled effect.

Cheers

Randy

[Todd Frost]

Nice topside view Colin. Don't mind his angle but agree with a touch more sharpening to the head. As mentioned, sweet bg. Well done.
TFS
Todd

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the interesting story Colin! I agree with Randy's excellent critique, especially the sharpening and crop suggestions.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

I am not sure about the composition. Of course a great view of the back but the head is slightly out of the plane of focus and the strong almost orthogonal lines - bird vs branch - make it a difficult image IMO. Exposure looks great. JR