Regent Honeyeater releasee

Hi all,

Have been quiet on this site lately, and this image explains it a bit. Have been busy for the past month or so assisting with a release of captive-bred Regent Honeyeaters - one of Australia's rarest honeyeater species. Anyway, was lucking enough to have the camera out when a few of the birds were released (one of the perks of the job!). Image is a fairly large crop and I've cloned out a radio-transmitter wire (hence the ruffled back feathers where the transmitter sits), but thought it worthy of posting anyway. Comments welcome.

Cheers, Dean

Canon 20D, 500mm f/4 IS and 1.4x TC, f/5.6, 1/400, ISO 200
PS CS - crop, sh-h, levels, curves, sat, usm.

A good sharp image of one of our bird icons, it would have been nice to have him glance at the camera, but maybe he is looking forward to a prosperous future. Perhaps it's worth considering including the wire to illustrate the techniques being used to save this species. Very nice tones in the background, something like the Neat Image noise reduction add-on would do a good job of make it even smotther.

I like it in every way Dean !!! Cool bird and all looks good form my side !!! Congrats !!!

Thanks Simon, and yes I do need to look at a noise reduction add-on. Here is close to the full-frame of the bird. Agree that a better head angle would have been nice too. One of the best (and rarest) Australian birds.

I like the image, good exposure control and details. Thanks for the extra information. I had no idea relatively small birds could be equipped with radio transmitters.

I like it the way it is Dean...:cool:

I like it as well Dean - Noise Ninja on the background would complete for me.

lance

Dean
The image is wonderful.....and the full frame showing the wire is incredible. I had no idea they'd be able to put a transmitter on this bird. The image came out nice.....great use of the diagonal, simple and nice detail. A little noise reduction would be a nice touch to an already interesting image. Well done.

Thanks for all the comments. It is possible to put radio transmitters on much smaller birds than this. These guys weigh around 40 grams, and the transmitters weigh around 1.5 to 2 grams depending on whether you tail mount or 'back-pack' it. Regulations stipulate transmitters cannot weigh more than 5% of the birds body weight. I've seen 0.5 gram transmitters put on 11 grams Silvereyes. Down side to this is battery size...smaller transmitters have smaller batteries and don't allow tracking for as long as larger transmitters. For the Regents it is expected we will be able to track for at least 9 weeks (assuming none fall off or fail prematurely).

Cheers, Dean