First Brown Thrasher

Only days before leaving FL, I was able to get my first shots of a Brown Thrasher. There were a pair of them flying down from a nearby branch looking for (what looked like) small insects. I later found out that they would go back to feed a youngster. Very tame birds, and they didn't seem bothered at all by my presence.

This is a stitched image of two separate captures. He got a bit too close and so I took an image for the body and quickly one for the tail. I guess I'd done enough of artie's reading where he employs this method and I was quick enough to try it myself.

On a side note: the move to ABQ was great and I'm finally settling in. The camera/lens hasn't been out of the bag yet, but I've already seen my fair share of new species :) Looking forward to the opportunities here!

As always, comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated!

Shooting Info:
Nikon D800 | 500 f/4 VR + 1.4x
1/1250 | f/6.3 | ISO 3200

Handsome looking bird Miguel, never heard of these before...looking a little like our Rufous Bristlebird. Like the strong contrast on this one, and the finer detail shows through well. Fits in the frame well and like the wide aspect frame that compliments the birds stance and levelled tail. Amazing eye and smooth backdrop with a nice to darker tone. Really cant see anything I would consider altering, splendid just as it is.

Beautiful image with loads of details. I wonder if the greens are a bit too bright and saturated? The reflected green off the grass is even showing on the bird's belly.
Very clever to stitch two images together - and to manage to get two shots that match up of a bird feeding......good effort.
ED

An interesting species...sometimes so bold, often so shy and retiring...I enjoy how you composed this, as it accentuates the long tail, (maybe just a touch too tight on the bottom, considering the virtual feet). Sharpening looks pretty good. Wish the grass was not uniformily cut. There are some noticeable post processing issues on the right hand side of the frame, most easily seen in the upper right corner...you could probably just run some selective NR on the background to smooth out the areas. NR on the background is a decent idea on this image anyway.

Hi Miguel, excellent low angle here, and I do like how the thrasher is stretched across the frame. Good DOF, sharp, and love the upper BG. Good work on the stitching, and agree, maybe a touch tight below.

Miguel:

Glad he cooperated with you. Very flighty in my area. Good thinking to combine two images. Excellent comments from the crew above. The evenly mowed grass is noticeable, but the bird has a lot of impact based on strong colors and your shooting angle, so less of an issue.

The tail does look a bit soft c/w the body.

Cheers

Randy

You did a nice job stitching.
Very good DOF and IQ at 3200.
Cool looking bird.

Nice detail on this shot Miguel. Nice job on the stitch, I did not notice on my first look, Super detail for Iso 3200.

very nice pose and details, I like the low angle. processing looks good to me, Randy has a good point about mowed grass but that wasn't under your control. Great image well done

Lovely IQ, the eye level makes it nice
the greens are saturated and make the bird pop out , looks good to my eye
i like the bird

Great thinking with the pano stitch...cool that you had time to do so as this species is very wary up here! Nice low angle, and the mowed lawn, although very "suburban", made for a great view of the legs at that low angle. Glad to here the move went well for you, looking forward to your new species photographed!

Miguel:
Magnificent image of beautiful bird.Seeing for the first time.
Love the colors,details and lovely BG and FG.

Regards,
Satish.