Sing it Loud n Proud

This Yellow-headed Blackbird was the king of the marsh pond that he ruled. He would sit on this branch and sing with the unique raspy call that has to be heard to be believed. They throw their head way back as they call. Very cool to watch and capture.
This was taken last spring. I watched him raise two chicks to fledgeing, then he was gone . Been waiting for 8 months to see if he would return and last week he did. Me and my friends were happy to see him back.
I really notice the difference in the dynamic range of the 7D compared to the 1DMKIV that I shoot with now when shooting these contrasty birds. Its a moderate crop but I liked the calling pose. Hope you do too.

7D---700mm---f5.6---1/2500---ISO400---Car as blind @ 8:00am---35% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input

David

This pose is excellent and the detail is fantastic. I love those neck feathers. I'm very excited for these guys to make it back up to the PNW.

That's one handsome bird...Love the light, details and visible eye with catchlight...And I especially love the bellows look of neck feathers...TFS

Amazing pose and very nice story, the bird look sharp with nice smooth background. Side light is hard on these contrasty bird but you did very well here, good job. I see a bit of halo on parts of the bird.

David:
Excellent image of handsome bird with great singing pose.Love the colors,details and very nice composition.

Regards,
Satish.

Love it, David. An image full of feeling.

David;

I was fortunate enough to see one of these fellows two years ago here in southwest Michigan. They are very uncommon here. I still remember the thrill of hearing that unique call as I would onto the grounds of the fishery where he was hanging out. Went back several times, but he eventually moved on.

Dynamic pose, simple BG,very good job holding the yellows as they are very easily blown with this fellow.

Agree about the halos, esp. noticeable along the back and tail. If mine, I might even crop a bit more from the left, because of his thrown back back.

Congrats.

Cheers

Randy

Classic Blackbird pose, nicely done..

Great calling pose and exposure. The colors look great and I like the BG. I would be tempted to tone down the bottom of the perch a bit and even add some canvas on the bottom if you have it.

Great posture captured David, love those expanded neck feathers, must of great to witness and get s cracker shot as well. Blacks look a little soft, but maybe that's a lot to do with the head and neck regions stands out so very well. Like as well the way the claws hang beneath the branch so they stand out nicely...amybe darken the perch a little as it looks a little silvery...unless of course it is naturally sun bleached that way

Great pose and attitude with a nice clean BG. Well done David.

A very striking image!

I'm always learning more about processing and curious about the while halo around the tail. Some of that seems to be a "feature" of digital images, and is emphasized by some processing steps. I'm curious if it's caused by the lens, the sensor, the demosaicing algorithm or a little bit of all?

Also curious about the dynamic range of the two cameras -- sounds like the 7D is better at capturing more detail in darks and lights? (A good thing to know.)

Thanks everyone for the input, Appreciated.
Thanks for the comment Diane, The halo is probably from sharpening as it is not very noticeable in the original. Also I may have not have been clear when I mentioned the dynamic range between the 7D and 1D, the 1D is the better. I will post some new shots with the 1DMKIV of this guy for comparison. Thanks again

Thanks -- you were clear but I see I didn't read your sentence carefully. I always appreciate knowing equipment limitations. Since the 7D is newer I'd have expected it might be as good or better, but possibly the smaller photosites are an issue that hasn't yet been overcome.