Chattering Away

[Paul Lagasi]

I finally photographed a Yellow-breasted Chat. It proved to be one of my toughest birds to date. They seldom come out in the open or say in one place very long.

I stopped at the Boyce Thompson State Park on my trip to Arizona, we were searching for Gray Vireo's. As soon as I stepped out of the car, I heard at least 5 different birds chattering away in the shrubs in the parking lot. Out came my iPhone, I played 1 bar of a Chat call and this guy just flew up to this perch and began calling back.

My new Tamron 150-600 lens captured this photo. My first ever of this species. After my Arizona trip I'm at 664 ABA Species photographed.

I used Nik Color Effects Pro to bring out the Yellow, framed and removed a few branches. Straight out of camera.

[Kerry Perkins]

Nice catch Paul and a super bird to be sure! From your posts here and on FB, I would say that you had a fantastic trip that was very rewarding. Good job!

[Paul Lagasi]

It was a good trip for sure Kerry, Thanks

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Paul, except for the heat it sounds like a great trip. Congrats on your new additions to your list! Great capture and a beautiful bird

[Hazel Grant]

Quite an accomplishment. Good you had the chat on your phone. And you caught him "chatting"

[Anita Bower]

What fun to photograph this bird you hadn't photographed yet! The position of the bird is just right on those bare branches, with a clean but colorful bg. The colors of the bg complement the bird. I like that it is singing to you.
There seems to be a loss of detail in this image. Is that because of the reduced size you used for posting it? I imagine the original had more detail.
What do you think of adding a touch of white to the eye to provide a catchlight?

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks everyone,

Anita....I think it was a combination of Nik Effect (74%) and image reduction (25%), I tried to add a sparkle in the eye but nothing looked right (to me at least). I'll work on this one a bit more. This image is from a very heavy crop, original is 31 x 21 inches and I cropped it down to 7.5 x 5 inches. I really have a hard time keeping details in these images when sizing them for BPN.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Congratulations on your catch. That is some kind of yellow. I like the pose and the BG. What NIK effect did you use?