Male Pine Grosbeak

[Shawn Zierman]

This male pine grosbeak was photographed today in Duluth, Minnesota. The males always seem to be greatly outnumbered by
the females and young birds that pass through my neck of the woods. The grosbeaks have appeared in good numbers recently.
Yesterday was a fantastic day. In one crabapple tree (at the same time) I watched pine grosbeaks (several), an american robin,
a rusty blackbird (what?!), and a common redpoll. If that was not good enough, at the same time, overhead there were migrating
bald eagles, and rough legged hawks...Canon7d, Sigma50/500os, iso400, f9, 1/500, cropped, resized, selectively adjusted contrast
and saturation in certain areas of the image, USM. Comments and critiques always welcome.
Regards,
Shawn Zierman.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Shawn, I like the soft light which in turn has brought out the reds very well. Good detail and sharp, and if anything, I would remove the loose branch URC.

[John Cooper]

This is a lovely composition Shawn - really tells a story with the partly eaten crabapples and remnants around the bill. The OOF trees in the BG also work well in this composition IMO.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice pose and the crumbs(?) on the beak add a touch of behavior. more space in the bottom than top usually creates a steep angle illusion, since you don't want to crop from the bottom here given the perch I'd add more room on the top.

colors and details look pretty good.

[christopher galeski]

nice image,like the birds colors and pose,nice light,agree on removing branch URC.thanks.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, perch, sharpness, BG and berries compliment the Grosbeak perfectly. Excellent image Shawn!

[Randy Stout]

Shawn:

Another good story telling image, with feeding activity well shown. Pretty bright light based on the dark shadows, but handled well. A bit of fill flash would have been an option to open up those shadows a bit. I find it helps reduce the dynamic range of the image to a level that the sensor can handle in many cases.

Removing the stick in RUC would be a very good option.

Cheers

Randy

[Satish Ranadive]

Shawn:
Excellent image with nice soft light.Very nice composition.Love the pose, colors,details and perch with red berries.

Regards,
Satish.

[Roman Kurywczak]

I like the idea of removing the stick in the URC. Still a very nice image overall as presented!

[Karl Egressy]

Great finding and excellent image, Shawn.
A few years ago a flock of about 150 Pine Grosbeaks put Guelph on the map among birders and photographers for a few weeks.
It might happen again.

[Raymond Lee]

Nice capture Shawn! These birds are hitting our area a few weeks ago, and I've been hoping to photograph the males, but without success. I agree with the above posters, that removing the loose branch on the URC would be a good option. Other than that, nice sharp details and good head angle.

[David Salem]

Great job on this one. Exposed well and sharp. Beautiful complementing colors and I like the perch. Very nice!

[Jon Swanson]

Great details, light, and color Shawn. Well done!

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Love the berry perch nice detail and a mouthful of evidence. Nice