Red Shafted Northern Flicker

I beleive this is a male Red Shafted Northern Flicker. The pic was taken at the Modoc Wildlife Refuge this fall in the late afternoon. This little character allowed my doxie and I to get very close to him, and smuggly demonstrated his bordom with our presence.

I used my Kodak EasyShare P712 set on auto :(. (There should probably be a "Pre-Eager to Learn" sight for me.) LOL

I cropped this photo and removed several twigs and small branches, (the twig nubs are not the branches that I removed, that is the way they were) other than that the pic is as taken.

All critiques are eagerly sought!
jeannette

He does have a " I'm not amused" look about him :-)

A beautiful bird and good composition, though I do see quiet a lot of noise in the background, and to me it doesn't seem very sharp, although I am not that experienced myself, and It is just my opinion for what it's worth :-)

Jacqui

Jacqui is right on the money with suggestions

Would add the bird is under exposed You can use the compensation in camera and dial one stop Look at the histogram and check

Once you get the hang of it you can set the compensation as you move to the bird Sometimes you only get on chance !!!

I like the composition jeannette. You have the head turn right - which is an important aspect of making expressive close-ups of birds. The noise can be dealt with, if your using PS by doing a selection on the BG (use the magic wand set to a sensitivity of 20). Then use Filter > Blur _ Gaussian Blur to blur the BG.

You are right on with your identification, Jeannette. A nice bit to help you remember the sex of the Northern Flicker is to look for the "mustache". In this case you have the red mustache behind the bill, which indicates this is a male...the female has no such "mustache". :) The others have provided good suggestions on your image!

Thank you so much for all of the great observations. Al, I have found the histogram in the camera and will figure out how to dial up and begin practicing with it. Jacqui, thank you for pointing out the noise in the background. I have read comments about noise in images and did not quite understand what it was. You have help me to see what it is - and thank you Robert for the information on how to manage it. I really appreciate all of the instructions on using PS3 as I have only had the program for 5 days now, though I did use the trial version for a month. It's an amazing tool! Judd, I appreciate the info on the Flicker's mustache, I was not sure about it and I was hoping that I had not miss identified him.

All the Best,
jeannette