Woodland Kingfisher

[gail bisson]

Taken at Xaro Lodge, Okavengo Delta, Botswana in densely wooded area.
This beautiful KF returns to the Delta just before the rains come to the area.
They have a wonderful, recognizable call and whenever I hear it I know I am in Botswana.
This guy did have a grey wash to the cheek area and it is not a color cast.
http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Halcyon-senegalensis
1DX f 600mm and 1.4x
SS 1/160 ISO 1000 F 5.6
Small crop. Usual LR sliders then to CS5 for NR on BG, cloned out an OOF branch on RHS and one on the left, reduced magenta in BG, burned the brighter green above head, DE to KF at 2 % and USM to JPEG
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[mohammad reza shahab]

nice Look Back pose,perch and colors.excellent details.

[dankearl]

Amazing bird and nice that all of perch is sharp. A bit of halo around perch at the top.
Minor easy fix.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Not sure I would change a thing Gail!

[Diane Miller]

Lovely, nice perch and BG, but maybe a little thin in the midtones?

[christopher galeski]

nice image,like the pose,IQ spot on,like the perch.TFS.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice pose, sharp details and good exp. I wish the bright spot in the BG didn't fall directly behind his head

[keith mitchell]

Gail it looks excellent ,tiny nit agree with above comment re the light spot behind the head.

Keith.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot of the bird Gail, they are a real tester aren't they always in the dense woodland and usually there is an uneven background. Love the bird not crazy about the background but considerably better than I have managed so far.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

A fine bird and very nice image Gail. I really enjoy to see these colourful birds.
This one gave you a great look-back pose, nice sharp eye and clean BG. Well done.

[David Salem]

You sure got some great frames on your trip. Love the baby blue colors of this species with the contrast of the black and the red beak. Looks great but I do agree that in a perfect world that BG color would be more consistent. Very nice Gail