Accidental Yellow Warbler on a nest, among the greens

[Jack Breakfast]

Fine folks, while stumbling through the Carolinian forest of Pt. Pelee some weeks back I accidentally came across this yellow warbler nest, 15 ft away, and more-or-less at eye level. If I were a more monstrous man I would have stayed longer, but I didn't want to disturb the (seemingly) nervous bird. I managed a few snapshots and moved on. Here's one, taken with the Canon 7D and 70-300L and 300mm. iso800, 1/200, f5.6. This is approximately 85% of the original capture. Will appreciate your comments, particularly regarding the colors here. How are the yellows and so forth? Any color casts to speak of? Some day I may get a high-quality monitor but I love working on my laptop so...it is freeing and cozy...
ALSO: What about that yellow material behind the warbler? Is this heart's friend exhibiting bowerbird behaviour? Ha! What wondrous color-matching!?
Many thanks
JB
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[Bill Dix]

Great find, Jack. There were certainly scads of Yellow Warblers at Pelee a few weeks ago, but I wasn't lucky enough to stumble across a nest. This is a great shot; and I can appreciate your sensitivity to the bird's comfort zone. I'd be tempted to rotate this CW, possibly getting the centers of the eyes on a horizontal plane, which will also have the effect of cropping just a bit tighter. It's a tricky task to create a layer mask separating the bird, nest and supporting branches from the rest of the bg on this one, but if there's a way to run s/h on the bg to tone down some of the brightest oof leaves, it might be worth a try. Or a vignette? I'm not sure what I'd do, but it's a fine capture and maybe worth some experimenting. Curious what others think. I can't help you re. the bowerbird fluff. Colors look just slightly on the bluish side on my screen.

[jack williamson]

Excellent bird and nest. Nice and sharp and the yellows look very good. The yellow beside the bird looks like feathers, maybe the bird has those feathers fluffed out over the eggs. I think a different crop would work, at least some off the top and left.

[Alan Murphy]

Nice opportunity. I would crop this to a verticle.

[dankearl]

I also think a vertical crop would look nice.
Great opportunity and very nice photo.

[Melissa Groo]

Nice image, Jack. I really like this head on view, and the way the branches frame the nest and bird. What a cool opportunity, well seen and captured.
Might consider some slight vignetting at the edges to make less bright and focus attention inward.
Would love to know what that yellow fluff is too!

[Jack Breakfast]

Your comments are more than appreciated, folks. I really was torn, and wanted to go back to spend some time with the bird, but the feeling was not mutual. Ah well, did the best I could with the short amount of time spent. I agree wholeheartedly RE a vertical presentation, and I'll play around with that. And I agree with you folks - this shot could benefit from some light vignetting, absolutely...

[Jack Breakfast]

I couldn't resist the square repost...hate it if you must...
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[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great opportunity and find. Thanks for getting your shots then being considerate of this little sweetie and moving on.very cool

[Jack Breakfast]

Yes Cheryl...you should see what the photographers around here do to get shots of snowy owls, great horned owls, long-eared owls. In the winter, that is, but the human behaviour is truly deplorable. I watched a photographer repeatedly slam a branch against a tree where a great horned owl was sleeping! I told the photographer that in exactly five seconds I would do the same to him with my camera. I was just bluffing - the guy was HUGE. Seconds later the owl flew out of the tree and away I also skedaddled, unscathed and feeling quite lucky indeed...

[Jim Crosswell]

I like your repost and Great Horned Owl story above. Nice image Jack!