Scaly-brested Lorikeets

[Glennie Passier]

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet - Trichoglossus-chlorolepidotus

These two little lorikeets have come down to a back yard feeder on New Year's Day at 5.15 am. (Quite dark) Adult on the bottom, juvenile on the top. You can see the young one's eye and beak are still darkish. I have several frames of this pair but managed to cut off their tails. I wish there was eye contact with at least one of them.

In ACR - Highlights to the left, White, Black and Shadows to the right. HSL adjusted. Clarity and a smidge of vibrance.
In PSCS6 - cropped to 45% FF, level adjustment to background, some eye work. Resized and smart sharpened birds.

Canon 5D2
Lens - Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM @ 400
1/320sec @ f5.6
ISO 2000
spot metering
manual
hand held

C&C Welcomed and appreciated!

[Jack Dean III]

Lovely image Glennie. It's always great to see animals interacting. If it were my image I would like for the eye color to match in both birds eyes if that's the way it supposed to be in real life. May be the young ones have darker color eyes though.

[Jim Keener]

What true gems! I especially like that you captured them at what appears to be the optimum opportunity. My guess is that there was simply no more of the image available or you might have more room all 'round.

One of the things I"m learning from you over a number of posts is that there are likely more opportunities to photograph birds than I had thought.

[Glennie Passier]

Thanks Jack. I also prefer to keep the image colour of birds as natural as can be. The juveniles' eyes are darker, even dullish. This one's tail is also a little shorter. He was still being fed by the adult.

[Glennie Passier]

Thanks Jim. I do have substantial room for a bigger crop. The bottom is, however, at its limit. I chose the smaller crop for composition only, and that's the diagonal branch. How do you post the extra little images to show your full frame? Is it in "manage attachments" but you have resized it down again?

Birds are in the strangest of places. I am a bit obsessed, however. I see their shadows and hear their calls and try to track them down. I'm forever scouring any sort of water course, especially after rain. I have tried birdscaping my yard over the last five years and it's starting to pay off. (Although I think I've planted too many trees for good photography!)

[annmpacheco]

Glennie, I like this despite what you would have preferred. Also, while working here on my desk and just posting, my green cheeked conure (mr. green bean) really liked the lorikeets because he marched over to the monitor and pecked and rubbed his beak on them! I like the captured intimacy between adult and juvenile, a wonderful image, wish it were mine!

[Jim Keener]

Posting the original. The image acquisition process for the second image is the same as for the first.

1. Place the cursor where you want the image to be.
2. Go through the process of loading the second image in the same manner as you did the first.

Et voila.

Were you ARBitrary about planting the trees? Sorry. I couldn't resist.

[Glennie Passier]

Thank you Ann. You wouldn't think your parrot would do that to a computer screen! It just goes to show how much they rely on sight.

[Frank McKernan]

I like this a lot. When we lived out of town my wife had a large aviary and she had several scalies from memory l think you got the colour spot on. If it was mine I would like little more room top and right but that's me
Cheers Frank.

[Warren Spreng]

Beautiful, the colors are great, I like the BG, and the details and DOF are really nice.

[Glennie Passier]

Frank, Thank you. No more room at the bottom but plenty on the RHS. I cropped so that the diagonal branch looked a little more centred. I had a look at a larger crop and found that a little more breathing room would look OK too.

[Diane Miller]

Wow -- I'm late here -- I got too busy! These guys are beautiful!! Great detail and color and wonderful interaction! It would be ideal to have had more room on the bottom, but that's a long learning process. I might go for a little more on the sides. I always try to leave a little extra room for rotating and the like, and sometimes it even works. The image is special enough that that is easily overlooked. And the BG is to die for!

Hope to see more of these guys.

Ann, your parrot sounds amazing! They are so clever!