Something different- Painted Redstart

[gail bisson]

While visiting Dauphin Island in Alabama the birders were in ecstasy as a painted redstart was spotted for only the second time ever in Alabama. Most people felt it was blown off course during its migration to Texas by all the storms and tornadoes this spring.
This little warbler was the FASTEST moving bird I have ever tried to photograph. He acts like a nuthatch on speed and often fans his tail which is white. I took over 60 pictures of him and only 2 were sharp. He would not come out of the dark canopy of the woods.
This isn't my best picture ever but i thought I would post it anyway as it is a bird I have not seen posted here.
Canon 7D
rented 500mm and 1.4 extender
ISO 800mm
SS 1/125
EVC +1
aperture priority
Shot as vertical
I found it very difficult to process in PP due to the blacks and low lighting conditions. Any tips you can give me to improve this picture are greatly appreciated.

[Luis Villablanca]

Great picture. I love the vertical pose and head angle. I share my frustration with this bird.
I tried to photograph it in Arizona last year and I ended up with just a couple of usable frames.
On my screen I can see a red cast on the image. You may want to adjust the WB.

[Melissa Groo]

What a lovely capture, Gail. it's almost like this little guy was posing for you! I think it looks great overall. Stunning colors on this bird. Thanks for sharing, I hadn't seen one before!

[Chad Caswell]

Wow Gail, congrats on this find.. and you did a very nice job with this one... Love the up the tree look. Wonderful bkg and perch.

[Jeff Dyck]

I love the pose Gail - if you handed me a print I am not sure if I could tell which way was supposed to be up! Like Luis, I tried to photograph this species in Arizona also and I feel your pain - you did very well at 1/125s.

[Doug Brown]

Congrats on such a nice photo of this Painted Redstart! You must have done pretty well with your exposure in camera, because the 7D at ISO 800 is not very forgiving when you try to recover blacks. Do you have a sliver of additional canvas at the bottom of the frame? Also, I notice some gray around parts of the bird's head; does it look that way naturally or did you do a little work on the BG?

[Marina Scarr]

Love this cute little bird. His colors really pop and you did a great job with exposure. Love his pose and the light is really nice. Do see a bit of halo on top of the bird's head.

[arash_hazeghi]

pose is great and I like that the shooting angle is great and not steep. I am also seeing some slight grey halo around the head and beak area but it may just be from the light. well done

[gail bisson]

Thank you all for your comments.
Doug,-the only thing I did to the BG was noise reduction. I only did one round of sharpening on the bird because if I did more , the blacks in the feathers looked wonky. I do have about 3% more room on the bottom.
Gail

[Herb Houghton]

Congrats on the find Gail. The colors are nice and the perch and BGD look great too.

[Yves Guillot]

I do not know what % of crop this is, but there is much noise in the BG. I would simply make a mask and run noise reduction in PS on it. Nice shot of a rare bird sight!

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Gail. I like the pose, HA, exposure and BG.