Nemesis bird....European Goldfinch

Finally after hoping for a few years to get close to one of these very timid little birds, I succeeded on a lengthy walk this afternoon with Christina, and got within reasonable shooting distance for a fleeting shot in a burst of 5 frames. Fairly common here and there but by far the most camera shy Finch I have encountered so far, and do not seem at all interested in playback recordings. Sadly not the most ideal conditions with overcast skies in late afternoon and no tripod.

Canon 7D + 500 f4 + 1.4 X TC......700mm, f6.3, 1/500, ISO 500, manual exposure, no flash...cropped to vertical to avoid cloning out 2 branches on the right, selective sharpen, selective noise reduction, slight lightening of the head region and reduced a brighter patch of light on the chest

Great stuff Phil - an image with some real attitude!
Totally agree with you on this species - an introduced "old world" finch to southern Australia which is unbelievably hard to get even remotely close to! Nice work,
Cheers Greg

Lovely species and pose. Exposure looks spot on, and you have wonderful details in all those feathers. Am I seeing some aberration in your BG or are my eyes just bad? I would like to see a little less space at the bottom.

Phil, this is really sweet! Cute bird, and you did very well given the conditions.

The BG does have some compression
issues, but a very nice look to the bird and
the perch is really nice!
I might take off the oof branch in front if you have a mind to do that sort of thing.

Excellent light, details and bg.

Hi Phil, the light looks fine from here, infact, may have helped you with the overall exposure on the little fellow. Love the roundness of him, together with the various colours. Marina would like less space below, I feel adding more would work - but I suppose it comes down to how one sees it.

Wonderful shot.
I personally like the lighting here.
Wonderful background, excellent feather detail, great perch, and great comp.
Very well done.

Thanks for looking, took a long time to get a decent picture on one of these

Congrats on getting your nemesis out of the way and you did it in style. Exposed perfect and tons of feather detail on this little beauty. I think the subdued light helped you here. Nice perch and a smooth BG round off a very nice shot. Well done

Phil - congratulations a lovely shot, I like the pose and the colours are excellent. He stands out superbly against the background - your patience has paid off!