This is the second year in a row I photograph this species at this location south-east of the city. Last year it was a male and this year, this female. I heard the "tapping" much before I saw it and despite the fact this bird is rare here I knew immediately that it was this species I was hearing. Just like last year I grabbed a twig from the forest floor, imitated the tapping noise by lightly hitting a tree in the same general rhythm, and in it came...too close that I had to back up. Here what we cannot see is that the subject is about two feet from the ground.
Canon 7D + 500mm f4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/200s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, cropped top and right for comp, darkened the pupil and raised the overall WB of the image.
Very nice WP, I donīt recall seeing it here. I like the two-toned BG and feather rendition. If mine, I would brighten the bird a tad and would give more room on bottom as the tip of tail is too close to the frame.
The sharpness and texture on bark and bird, very nice. Yes, a little head rotation would have been nice, but it is still effective for me. Soft light and pleasant bg.
I will have to try some tree tapping on my local woodpeckers.
Black-backed Woodpecker.
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