Crested Barbet

[Morkel Erasmus]

I photographed this beauty as he finished drinking from the Mkhombe hide at Zimanga in South Africa.
Love the light and the colours of their plumage. Although a Barbet is called "Houtkapper" in Afrikaans (which means "woodpecker"), it only makes its nest by making a hole in the trees, whereas a true woodpecker (which we also have variants of in South Africa) feeds from insects living in the bark of the tree.

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f7.1 | 1/1600 SS | ISO-1600

[Karl Egressy]

Nice looking bird, beautiful light and colors. Very nice overall. In a perfect world the perch would have been angled from the left bottom corned to right top corner.

[Richard Flack]

Gotta love them rag bad birds! Nice clean image with good IQ Morkel. Agree with Karl, would be nice if the perch weren't directly behind the bird (but this is small)

[David Salem]

Great looking bird and nice work capturing it. The details look good and the profile pose shows off the feather markings and detail well. Yes the perch angle could be better but I'm sure there wasn't much you could have done. I find the image just a little dark on my monitor. Well done

[Mark Needham]

I love these guys and despite all of my time in Africa and how common this bird is said to be, I haven't seen them too often at all. Great catch light in the eye, nice and sharp (although I might be tempted to run one more round of slight sharpening on the head, back feathers, and tail to extract more detail), and the colors are spot on. I do agree with David that the image appears a tad dark on my screen (maybe try +5-7 brightness?).

[Ian Wilson]

I like to see the feather detail as here but I can also imagine an attractive alternative with a little more room if you have it. Regards, Ian.

[Brendon Cremer]

Great detail and nice BG. Also look a little dark to me but that easily fixed, otherwise great image.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - Nice color and detail. My first impression before reading the comments was also that it seemed a little dark.

TFS,
Rachel

[Neil Burton]

They are great looking birds which I never seem to get right, mostly as they are in dark places or scruffy rest areas :| Love this for it simplicity.

[Bill Dix]

Interesting looking bird in lovely light and a good pose. Perch and darkness mentioned. Is he molting, or is this his normal look?

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mork, well exposed on this fellow, especially the blacks, and the overall colours look spot on. Im fine with the pose infront of the perch, and with a smooth BG too.