Northern Mockingbird, the State Bird of TEXAS-Down the Barrel

[Mack Hicks]

I am a fifth generation Texan, and I have always wondered why the mockingbird was chosen as the state bird. After watching this particular mockingbird for several hours last month, and many of his kin through the years, I now understand. Mockingbirds, like most Texans, are all about ATTITUDE. They are brash, rowdy, aggressive, and most of all loud. A perfect avian fit for a great state.

Rainy morning in late February, south Texas. Nikon D700, Nikon 500 f/4 with Kenko 1.4 TC.
ISO 800 1/125 f/5.6 Gimbaled tripod in a popup blind. Post in LR3, cropped, exposure adjusted, little vibrance, sharpened and NR and a fairly generous post crop vignette to make the bird stand out. Cloned out a small branch in CS5, sized and sharpened.

One think I noted is looking through these down the barrel images, is how hard it is to get a lot of features in focus.

Thanks for suggesting this topic. These are very interesting.

[Randy Stout]

Mack:

This one has attitude written all over it. Pretty darn grumpy looking!

Well exposed, nice BG, interesting perch.

You are right about the challenges of getting a lot of the bird in focus when doing straight down the barrel shots. THe DOF is such that only a small amount of the bird will be sharp.

It looks like perhaps the focus point was on the upper chest, but hard to tell for certain, as it is a little soft to my eyes. You obviously didn't have a lot of light to work with, and with that shutter speed and that focal length, you may be getting a little motion blur as well.

I could see a minor crop down from the top to make the branch work the diagonal of the frame even more.

Cheers

Randy

[Dave Leroy]

Looks like someone stole his breakfast.

Nice shot and good pose for straight down the barrel.

I also like Randy's crop suggestion.

Just looking at bird and perch I am not sure if it is over sharpened a bit.

Very nice bg.

Dave