Common Golden Back Woodpecker ("Lunch is Served")

[Vinit Menon]

​In my backyard, trying to get into the ripe Papaya.

Canon 40d, EF 100-400 @400mm, F5.6 1/250, ISO 800, with in camera flash.

Cropped some part to position it better.
Exposure, Color Enhancements and Sharpening in LR5 and CS6.

A long time viewer, this is my first post in the BFN community.
Appreciate your critiques and comments

Thanks
Vinit[IMG][/IMG]

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Vinit, welcome to BPN!! Glad you've found the courage to start posting

Looks like a close cousin to our Pileated Woodpeckers. I like the feeding behaviour you got here, and the pierced fruit is an important story-telling element. There are a few issues here though to make the most of the situation: The head is angled away from us and the eye suffers from "steel eye" due to the flash. The tail is clipped, I feel having flipped your camera to vertical would have made for a stronger composition and would have included the whole subject.

I love the papaya perch and fruit, and the canopy of leaves is neat (but you could clone out a couple of the white spots above the head if you are for that sort of manipulation).

Hoping to see more form you!

[Marina Scarr]

Welcome to BPN, Vinit! This bird does look a lot like our pileated woodpeckers. Nice seeing the bird in its environment and eating from the papaya. I am missing the bird's tail and feel as though a vertical composition or a larger crop would have worked better. Love seeing the bird's claw gripping the tree. You are off to a good start.

[Grace Scalzo]

Good morning, Vinit! What an interesting photograph. Great bird and the papaya that he's eating completes the story. Seems like most of the time, woodpeckers are excellent candidates for vertical compositions due to their shape. It would be nice to see his tail and the entire papaya that he's eating from. Maybe something to try next time. Nice first post and I hope to see more of your work here on BPN.

[Vinit Menon]

Thanks all for the feedback.
I wasn't prepared for this shot at all and the monsoon made it more difficult from the lighting perspective.
However, i did manage to get a lineated barbet in almost similar situation - which I will be posting soon.

I do agree a vertical shot would do more justice to the picture, and this is something I will be waiting for.

Thanks
Vinit