Rufous Antpitta - Colombia

I'd heard this high elevation skulker in a dozen different places around Colombia before I finally got eyes - and lens - on one
at a feeding station outside Manizales. It was a pretty sweet encounter and well-worth laying in soaked and decaying leaf matter!

Not a lot of light, industry standard for antpittas.....

I'm back in Colombia in June 2020 if you're interested in joining me.

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II on EOS 1D Mark IV
1/80 at f/5, ISO 2000
Processed in LR CC. Cloned out one distracting and OOF specular highlight at upper right.

Attachment 183065

You barely eeked out sharpness on the face as focus was on breast, but good enough.
Nice looking bird...
BTW, I looked at your blog, did not know you were a fellow cyclist. I do 4-5K a year, bike 20 miles
a day back and forth to my Duck pond most days carrying expensive gear in a backpack in city traffic...
Excellent way to travel..Even have a Surly as one of my bikes.

Nice pose and achievement. Great environment.

Lovely result from what, judging by the techs, were very poor conditions.

Tech wise, the head does appear a little softer than the body - not sure if this is a slightly missed focus or a touch of movement with the slow shutter speed, but its not immediately noticeable and not enough to be a deal breaker.

All else is good, nice shooting and head angles, great colours

Mike

Nice view of this neat looking little bird. Looks pretty sharp for the slow shutter speed. You could have raised to ISO some more.

attractive bird in an attractive settings, is the pupil always like that or the eye was slightly closed? you got away with such slow SS

1D4? did you lose your camera :D?

Very nice looking Dorian...Great feather detail on the body of the bird. I wished the legs had been in focus, and I bet you do too.

Will