Loggerhead Shrike

[Joseph Przybyla]

When Dottie and I were driving along Joe Overstreet Road we also saw and captured images of this bird. It has been nicknamed the, Butcher Bird, because of it's habit of impaling the prey it catches on thorns or barbed wire to secure it while feeding. If you look close at the barbs to the left of the bird you can see the remains of the prey it was eating. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm)
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering + 2/3 EV ISO 560
Post processed in Lightroom 5

[Alan Murphy]

Love the look back pose and great DOF.

[David Salem]

I agree that the look back pose looks great, one of my faves, and the details and exposure look perfect. I personally dont mind the barbed wire perch as I shoot may birds on them but I tend to like the really rusty ones best, gives a rustic western look IMO. Nice work

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely image, Joe. Great pose and BG. I'd like to see a little more on top and a little less on the bottom. It also appears as though your point of focus may have been on the bird's back rather than it's head. Correct me if I'm wrong. Therefore, I think you need to sharpen the shrike's head just a little more.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Joseph, excellent exposure and detail, that finer plumage really shows up nicely. Thats a 'proud' pose he gave you, and just love that clean smooth BG. Thanks for pointing out the piece of left over meal.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thank you all for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.

Marina, the focus was on the head, I moved the active focus point up so that I could focus on the head/eye. I think because the back feathers have more detail in them it appears that was where I focused. Thank you for commenting, I appreciate your input.