Sacred Kingfisher

[PhilCook]

I wish these lovely birds were more common nearer my home, but needing to travel several hundred kilometers on the off chance of a sighting is the only real option. Spent 10 days recently about 600klms from home, and only on the last day did I see one and get a chance for a shot of one of these....that's birding for you Not quite what I would of liked, but one takes what one can get at times.

Canon 7D + 500 f4 + 1.4 TC....700mm......f7.1, ISO 200, 1/400, manual exposure, tripod mounted with bright morning light directly behind...slight crop, basic edit with selective sharpen, noise removal to backdrop

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Lovely bird Phil. And KF is always special to get!

[dankearl]

The KF is spectacular. Great color, perch and BG.

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot.
Great pose, great perch, and a lovely looking kingfisher.
Well done.

[David Salem]

Very cool Kingfisher. Nice HA , exposure, perch and details. The BG is very complementary to the bird making for a great scene. Nice Work...

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Gorgeous looking kingfisher. I like the blue colors of the bird and BG. Good sighting, well worth waiting for well done.

[Grace Scalzo]

Your efforts are to be commended in finding this beautiful bird. Looks like your light was tough, I'd try to lessen the shadow underneath and bring out more detail in your whites. I think a trim from the right might work also. What is the blue in the background? It's pretty, but competes with the bird.

[Satish Ranadive]

Phil:
Excellent image of this beautiful and colorful kingfisher.
Love the pose,Great IQ,colors,details and BG. Efforts always pay.

Regards,
Satish.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice hed turn and great colours, Phil.

[Shawn Zierman]

Awesome kingfisher...love the massive bill. Perfect head angle. Exposure looks spot on.
In this light, I'm wondering why not iso400 at say f9 to get the whole bird nice and sharp?
It looks like the forewing is just outside the zone of critical focus as is.....
The blue in the background, and the brown part in the upper right hand corner
is pretty strong, de-saturating it a bit is a worthwhile consideration...

[John Cooper]

Lovely portrait of the kingfisher Phil. The fluffed-up feathers has really added to the impact - actually it almost resembles the azure kingfisher here..!! The sacred is common around my home town but getting good images is another thing.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, perch, HA and complimentary BG. Nice image Phil.

[PhilCook]

Awesome kingfisher...love the massive bill. Perfect head angle. Exposure looks spot on.
In this light, I'm wondering why not iso400 at say f9 to get the whole bird nice and sharp?
It looks like the forewing is just outside the zone of critical focus as is.....
The blue in the background, and the brown part in the upper right hand corner
is pretty strong, de-saturating it a bit is a worthwhile consideration...

Good point, I think I was simply trying for lower ISO to try and completely eliminate any noise commonly delivered by the 7D, I was experimenting at the time. But can see the value in the smaller aperture to increase dof, but coupled with only having a fleeting moment to get any kind of shot, so experimenting with other settings was not easily obtainable....2 seconds later he took off to the high tree tops.