Mystery bird

[Diane Miller]

But that's only because I'm in preschool as a birder -- or infancy. I was at the Sacramento NWR Sunday morning, in pea soup fog. Almost passed up the main spot where you can get out of your car, as the closer birds (not very) are to the south, against the sun. But with the sky a softbox I decided to have a look. There wasn't anything of interest, but then I saw this little guy flitting around in the reeds between the road and the water. You can't go beyond a fence behind the reeds and the bird was mostly down behind them, very busy with short forays. (Bug hunting?) But every so often it gave me a reasonably clear view and then it unexpectedly landed on a fence post closer to me. For about three seconds.

Canon 7D2, 100-400 at 400, ISO 1600, f/6.3, 1/1250, handheld. Cropped to 30% of the original frame, not exactly the greatest IQ but I was pleased with the sharpness for this much crop. Headed to the car for the 600 after this and it flew off into the distance.

What is it?? I've never seen one like it (which means nothing).

[Aidan Briggs]

Hey Diane, its a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Pretty common in CA in the winter.

The IQ looks great at this resolution. The profile pose is field guide perfect. BG and soft light are nice. The fence post not so much.

Well done, these guys are tough to catch sitting still.

[keith mitchell]

Diane got to have a bit of luck some time, bit surprise with you self critique the IQ looks very good to me, great smooth b/g.

Keith.

[John Robinson]

Looks great to me Diane although I would like something in the background to give it a sense of "place"- however subtle. Grand detail in the bird whatever.
John

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image. Very nice look back pose, beautiful colors, sharpness, BG and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Diane looks just great to me, the quality albeit a web sized image looks great - what aren't you too keen on?

[Grace Scalzo]

Here on Long Island, these cuties are knows as "Butter Butts". LOL I think that the photo is sweet with a pleasing head turn and I love the structure that the man made perch gives to the image. To my taste, the sharpening on his back could be reduced.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, everyone! I'm not good at remembering names, but I think I'll remember Butter Butt!

I would love a little more going on in the BG but it was a long way to the trees. I got a few shots of him in the reeds but they were even smaller in the frame. Next time I'm there I'll set up the 7D2 on the 600, maybe with the 1.4X, and hope to find one of these guys again.

I probably could have gone to ISO 800 but was too excited to try to catch this guy, and wanted all the SS I could get for handholding as he was so small in the frame. The noise here is higher than I like for such a big crop, and as the ISO increases the resolution and dynamic range go down. But the IQ here is a tradeoff I'm happy to make for the freedom to be able to handhold when it's an advantage. The 7D2 and 100-400 are a great combination if the subject is close enough.

I forgot to include processing -- standard small adjustments in LR5, with a very slight increase in both sharpening and luminance NR. I usually feel they just offset one another and don't do either, but it seemed to give a slight advantage here. Then into PS for cleaning up the perch and a little more NR (Nik Dfine) and sharpening (Focus Magic). (Again, trying to balance the two usually doesn't work for me, but it seemed to help a little here.) Exported from LR; no further sharpening to the JPEG.

[Joe Subolefsky]

Looks great love all the detail.I think the BG is just fine the way it is. Guessing that's with the new 100-400?

[Declan Troy]

Yellow-rumped Warbler was "formed" by the merger of three previously recognized species and some think this action may have been premature. The individual you captured is what was formerly called Audubon's Warbler, the form widespread in western North America and distinguished from the eastern (Myrtle Warbler) by the yellow throat. The third version is found in Guatemala.

[Arthur Morris]

Very sharp, soft light and EXP perfect. HA too. Please post a JPEG that shows the full frame original image.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks again, guys! It must be frustrating to try to sort out species, or sub-species, or whatever.

Yes, Joe, the new 100-400 II. It's limited in reach, even with the 7D2, but I'm having a ton of fun with it. It's beautifully sharp and I love having the zoom. And it's useable with limitations with the 1.4X III.

artie, Here's the original full frame with only the default LR settings.

[Richard Flack]

Hi Diane, Lovely sharp image with awesome detail and interesting perch. I would be tempted to give him some more space to stare into to. TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Diane, Lovely sharp image with awesome detail and interesting perch. I would be tempted to give him some more space to stare into to. TFS

Well said Richard. That is where I have gone with the repost:

perch clean-up and more of a pano crop. I was glad to see the room in the front....

ps: thanks Diane

[Arthur Morris]

Or something a bit tighter from top and right but still with some room in front of the perch...

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, artie -- I like the idea of more room, although I might go halfway in between -- maybe just to show off the feather detail as much as possible. I tend to crop a little too tight.

There was one of him (her?) parked on a reed (briefly) that presents a halfway decent composition -- I'll post it tonight when my one-in-24-hr limit expires. It has more room.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. The big problem with the image in Pane 1 is that the front of the perch was eliminated--the bird needs a lot more room in front there. Also, there was no reason, especially with your tight crop, to include the lower part of the perch, the part below the spot where the angle changes in the back left of the perch. The image is super-sharp and that gives you lots of latitude for making large crops. That said, the image in Pane 1 is simply too tight in the frame and too big in the frame for the reasons noted here :)

[David Salem]

Even though the perch isn't as nice as your current post, this is technically a much better frame. The pose, exposure, details and BG all look perfect. Now you just need this little "butter butt" on a good unobstructed perch. Good luck

[Diane Miller]

Thanks David! Now that I know they exist I'll try looking for them!