Vermilion Flycatcher

[Lyle Gruby]

Shot this in Brazos Bend, south of Houston. Apparently this guy lives there year round and has for several years. He's pretty moody, sporadically allowing photographers to get close. I noticed him using a broken branch on the ground for his hunting perch. I very slowly eased into range and sat for about 45 minutes while he caught flies from another perch and assessed me. He eventually flew right over and allowed for a few shots. All C&C appreciated.

Techs:
D7000
500mm f4 with 1.4x HH
f/6.3
ISO 640
1/320

[vishaljadhav]

Impressive Bird,
The HA is nice and the single perch with a BG to die for.
I wont like to change anything in this , i am just in love with the bird man its amazing

[gail bisson]

What a beautiful bird.
I like the simple perch and the BG colors. Hard to go wrong with such a beautiful bird.
If this isn't already a big crop I would go tighter taking a bit off the top and bottom for a landscape orientation.
I have never seen this bird IRL so I cannot comment on the reds except to say the reds on the belly look better than the reds on the head. The feather details on the head seem a bit coarse. I could be completely wrong though and will trust your presentation.
A wonderful shot,
Gail

[PhilCook]

Great minimalistic composition Lyle, nice HA and such a slim perch. A little soft and lacking in fine detail so I'm guessing this was a big crop. I'd also be inclined to crop to a more wide aspect by cropping top and bottom

[Jonathan Ashton]

What a gem patience paid off, the detail is not quite there, maybe SS a little slow?

[Diane Miller]

Gorgeous bird -- your patience was well rewarded. I also think it could work well with some off the top and bottom.

[Don Railton]

Hi Lyle.

What a beautiful bird.... I am happy enough with the crop but I think I am seeming a bit of a red halo or processing artefacts above the head..

DON

[christopher galeski]

nice bird and pose,like the BG,its a bit soft on my screen.

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful image of beautiful bird. I like the pose,HA,beautiful colors,perch and BG.
Agree with Gail about crop and would have one more round of sharpening.

Regards,
Satish.

[Lyle Gruby]

What a gem patience paid off, the detail is not quite there, maybe SS a little slow?

Thanks all for the feedback, this isn't that large a crop, although it does it have 2 of the D7000's weaknesses working against it. Low light conditions combined with shooting above ISO 400. Still not sure where the "softness" and lack of fine detail comments are coming from. I can personally see individual feathers throughout the entire bird, there might be some motion blur in the primaries of the wing. I can also see the gradation between the brown iris and the black pupil.

[Randy Stout]

Lyle:

The red channel is just slightly blown in the jpg, probably causing the slight loss of detail in the head.

I am also seeing the faintest of halos around the head, mainly forehead and crown, and the halo has a very slight red tint. Interesting.

Cheers

Randy