Wryneck

I found a really uncommon and hard to see kind of woodpecker: the European Wryneck.
I am really glad, that the two birds seemed to have a lot of fun, posing for my Camera!
I was able to make a lot of pictures, even with the couple together on one trunk...

Made with my Mark III and my big toy, the Canon 500 / f4 + 1.7 Soligor TC
f 5.6 / 1/400 sec / ISO 1000
- 2/3 Exp. Corr.

Great pose,details,composition and fantastic bg,nice work Rosl!

Rosl, Thanks for posting that super capture! The BG composes the bird in great style. Bob

Terrific pose and sharpness Rosl! Nice BG too. Not sure what these birds look like in real life, but I wonder if a slight contrast boost is appropriate. Thanks for posting!

Fabulous! These are difficult birds to see let alone photograph, let alone photograph exceptionally well like you have done! I'm with Doug on the contrast comment but only if it renders the bird more true-to-life. Well done!

Great image Rosl, I agree with all the positive comments and would like to add how much I enjoy the detail in the feathers.

Wow, I would not have guessed that this is a woodpecker! Look how the tail blends into the perch, very neat.

Hi Peter,
thank you for your repost and your work with my image.
I like the look of the image with higher contrast, but I feel that the bird isn't that "contrasty" in reality. When I saw them, the male was more vibrant in his colour, but the female was somewhat paler and soft coloured.
But I am not sure, what the right colour and contrast is.

I decided to do a - 2/3 because the background was sometimes quite dark (they changed places often) and I really wanted to avoid the whites burning out. I felt, that it would be better to have the image not too bright.
Do you think, it was a wrong decision?

I am so happy to have those pictures, and I feel really good, that you like this one :-))

Superb result especially given the hard conditions, wide open apperture and high ISO!
I love the composition and fine detail of the bird's feathers.

Great pose, details, BG and I don't think I've seen this species before. Thanks for sharing! Another vote for more contrast, maybe something between your and Peter's version. I might add a bit more space at the bottom. As for the EC, was the image underexposed when you opened it in RAW? It does not look very noisy and the high ISO capabilities is where the Mark III shines. I would run some NR on the BG, though.

Great looking bird Rosl :) fantastic BGand pose...big congrats !!

What a handsome bird, Rosl! Great to have found them. Great composition, background and perch. Since I have not sen the bird, can't judge on the color issue.

Wow, thank you for your gentle critique. A lot of feedback for me and my picture....
It was the same with me: I had never seen this bird before. I was looking for the Red-backed Shrikes, wondering, if their chicks are out of the nest.
When I sat there in my hide, the car, I saw that brown bird, I have never seen before. Sadly the light was poor, it was after 8 PM and I had to use ISO 2000 - 2500; so the images were noisy and not really sharp.
The next day day after work, I went there again, having much better light and there was the pair of the birds! I was really lucky, to get them so nice and nerly full framed on the camera chip!

If you want to see some more image of them, please feel invited to my homepage http://www.birdpictures.de/index-4.html There You can use the link "HTML" or "FLASH" to go to the image galerie.

Thanks again for having a look at my image here.....

Congratulations Rosl,
Your woodpecker is fantastic. I like the colors, good eye contact and sharp details...:cool:

Excellent image Rosl. This is my favourite european woodpecker and instead of the fact that is not difficult to spot this species near my home I have no decent images of this beauty. I think that an itermediate version between yours and the one by Peter is the best solution. Congratulations for such a fine image.