Eureka! At last!

Just back from 3 nights away at Montville, just over an hour north of Brisbane. I spent two mornings walking at nearby Mary Cairncross Park. It's a lovely rain forest setting...but typically very low light for most of the circuit walk. On the first morning walk I spent around 4 hours at the location, hoping to spot at least one Noisy Pitta...a bird I had yet to see let alone photograph. They are very elusive and forage around the rain forest floor. The man at the reception area told me he had worked there for 16 years and had only seen one twice! Anyhow, I almost gave up after 3 hours or so and decided to walk back to the car, but thought maybe one more try. As I turned around there he was! I had to use ETTL flash (not my strong point) and a high iso, but am stoked that I actually saw one and photographed it. This is the best of a series of around 6 shots. I went the next morning but never saw one...such is life.:bg3:
7Dii, 100-400@200mm, 1/200th sec, f5.6, iso1600, ettl flash, HH in manual mode.

Huge congrats on finding this great bird.
The perky pose is nice and the perch is pretty good for this fleeting encounter.
The flash is really overdone (as you alluded to already).
But this image is all about getting your bucket list bird and the clear view. So well done Paul

Thanks Gail. Yes, I needed to use some negative flash -EC, but the other shots I got were too dark and he was facing the wrong way! Using flash is a learning curve for me, but helped by a pdf book by Glenn Bartley. Hopefully I'll get more chances on future visits. I did use the flash for most shots during the two mornings I was there, and got a few other "lifers" which I'll post soon...lots of images to edit! Cheers.

That's a big tick Paul, not a bird on my list yet, and to get such a clean shot is a bonus. I bet you were smiling all the way home :bg3:. While it looks a bit washed out it can be somewhat rescued. Select just the bird and go to S&H in PS, zero Shadows and raise the highlights bar to what you think is more realistic. Well done!

Thanks Colin...definitely a smile on the way back! Will have another go at the editing. Cheers!

I spent some time re-editing the image to try and get it more to how I saw it in the field (probably need to do this more before posting!). I got rid of a few distractions as well. Looks much better on my main monitor. Cheers.

So happy for you Paul :bg3: Well done on getting this bird. Repost is a big improvement.

Thank you Aditya.

Big congratulations for getting such a clear shot of this elusive bird. Must have been a thrill to turn around and find him sitting there. Repost is an improvement on the flash issue. Bird feels a bit large in the frame for my taste, and if this is a crop I might consider giving him a bit more room.

Hi Bill. Thank you for the feedback. Yes, I'm not mad about the crop either, but to the bottom right and left of the raw file there is a very light large (almost white) patch which I don't like, hence the vertical crop. As it was I had to clone in at the lower left perch. Cheers.

Always nice to get to photograph a rarity. Sounds like very tough shooting conditions. Yes the repost looks much better.