Opera Lark

This Rufousnaped Lark was in full song when I approached him. Taken from my car in a small nature resrve close to my house a little while ago.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/1600
F/6.3
ISO 400

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand held

I can almost hear it from here! Good shot given the foliage and nice bg.

Sweet light and great comp. doesn't get much better than this.:S3:

Awesome singing pose and I like the natural setting. I do wish the small stick didn't intersect with the tail but it is a lovely perch and the sharp eye is great!

Awesome pose and bird placement in the frame. Love the rich colours and creamy BG. Just a bit too many leaves IMO (wish the FG group wasn't there), but still a strong image.

Great singing pose (Colin's comment put a smile on my face). Excellent detail. Agree with Daniel and Denise about the perch.

Thank you all for the feedback and comments.

Nice detail and exposure Stuart. I actually like the perch with all its leaves, shows where they live. The simple/singular perches are nice but its good to see more of reality in these type of images from time to time. Nice colors and bg. Well done.
TFS
Todd

You handled this like a pro, Stu. I have some sympathy for Todd's view that it's good to see reality, warts and all, but with Daniel I'm seeing the foreground leaves as detrimental to the image. The foliage is just a bit excessive; the lark is just about to sink into it. The singing pose and spot-on exposure overcome the problems and make this image a pleasure to behold.

"pick me, pick me"

Glorious image of one of my favourite sounds, thanks Stuart:cheers::cheers:

Hi Stuart, a beautiful sharp image and great singing pose with raised crest. Good exposure and sharpness and I am allways in favour of some habitat included.