Male Superb Fairy-wren, Queensland.

[Peter Scholer]

Nikon D7000 with Nikon 600mm VR and Nikon TC-14E
Tripod
ISO: 640
Aperture: 9
Shutter: 1/800
Exp. Comp.: -0.7

I wanted a clean no fuss background and waited for the Male bird to land on this perch he sometimes uses. He is never there long so I had to be ready.
I used -0.7 as the blues are easily blown. This seemed to work well as there was very little blown blue highlights with the raw file.
He was shot at 7.47 am in the morning to avoid the harsh light.
A little cloning to remove unwanted branch left hand side of image.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great pose and colours.

[PhilCook]

Nice one Peter, I especially like the natural blue plumage bleeding into the white on his chest as you dont always see that, nice alert posture as well

[Bill Dix]

Your patience and planning paid off. Nice detail, light and bg, and well exposed. I've always wanted to see one of these beautiful little creatures.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the raised tail, details, lighting and clean BG. Well done Peter.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Peter, love the pose with the cocked tail. Colourful little guy with those blues, and I would try and tease some more detail from the blacks. I do like the curved perch and smooth BG.

[Joe Senzatimore]

You envisioned a shot , and made it happen. Outstanding capture. Loving the detail and color.

[Dave Leroy]

Very nice composition and pose. It shows off the lovely bird very well. I really like the foresight for getting the shot.
DOF works as well.

[Marina Scarr]

Stunning bird and pose. The perch works well and just love that tail!!! The blacks look a tad dark and the light blue just under the eye looks a tad hot. I think you get more details out of both if you went back to the RAW file. This capture is worth it.

[Peter Scholer]

Hi Peter, love the pose with the cocked tail. Colourful little guy with those blues, and I would try and tease some more detail from the blacks. I do like the curved perch and smooth BG.

Thanks for the helpful CC Stuart.
Here I have tried to tease out more detail from the blacks as you kindly suggested. I applied selective Shadows/Highlights in photoshop.
The image is improved - thanks.
In addition I darkened the blues under the eye and eased off a little on the sharpening too.

[Peter Scholer]

Stunning bird and pose. The perch works well and just love that tail!!! The blacks look a tad dark and the light blue just under the eye looks a tad hot. I think you get more details out of both if you went back to the RAW file. This capture is worth it.

Thanks for helpful advice Marina here is another edit with more detail in the darks and the blue cooled down.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Sweet little guy, and great job planning/anticipating the image. Beautiful perch and awesome BG. My favorite version is pane #10.

[Marina Scarr]

Pane 10 is killer.

[Satish Ranadive]

Very sweet image. Love the pose,colors and bg. Great details.