Green Honeycreeper with wasp

[Rick Bowers]

Green Honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) - near San Jose, Costa Rica

This male honelycreeper took a partial second break from bashing the wasp to death on the branch.

A common species from southern Mexico south throughout most of the Amazon River basin with a disjunct population along the southeast coast of Brazil.

50D, 500 f4 + 1.4, 580EX II for fill, 1/60 sec; f/5.6; ISO 400
PP - Noise reduction on background, levels, head sharpened and a small branch in the lower left corner cloned out, all in CS6.

[gail bisson]

The IQ and detail in the honeycreeper are excellent. The blacks of the crown look great. Exposure is spot on.
The slight head turn our way is perfect and the bee in the mouth is icing on the cake.
I really wish that leaf in the BG, intersecting with his head, wasn't there. It really draws the eye away from the bird.
Gail

[Henry Domke]

Wow! What color!
Seems perfect to me.

[Graeme Cox]

Rick. Gail has said it all well done.. Great image mate.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The leaf touching the head is unfortunate, but all else looks great...and that wasp is just the icing on the cake!

[keith mitchell]

Rick I agree about the leaf but that apart it really is a stunning image which I like a lot.

Keith.

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent image of beautiful bird. Lovely colors, details and composition.Regards,Satish.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I noticed the leaf in the thumbnail right away but when I pulled it in it seems less distracting to me because it is oof. It added some dimension to the image for me. Of course would prefer not but didn't kill the image for me. Great colors and detail and the visible bug is great

[Jim Crosswell]

A great subject and image Rick! I like the pose, wasp, exposure, red eye, IQ, light and composition.