Pine Siskin Territorial Display.

[Daniel Cadieux]

For the past couple of weeks we've enjoyed a pretty remarkable finch invasion. Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls (and a few Purple Finches in the mix too), many times by the hundreds, ravaging backyard bird feeders! I picked up a few branches in the forest and played around with some setups in my yard.
One particular Pine Siskin was quite territorial (more than the others) and everytime another bird would come close it would try to menace it ...by flashing its wings and tail, sometimes holding the pose for a brief moment. This was its favorite perch to display on and my favorite to point my lens at. Who ever said Pine Siskins are drab!? I was fortunate that the darkest and yellowest of the Siskins was performing this way.

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1000s., f/7.1, ISO 1600, natural light, handheld, FF(!), eye work including catch light, a part of the feeder removed in lower right corner.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Awesome Shot..

[Michael Thompson]

Wow, that is an amazing pose! Nice image! I will have to watch these Siskins more!

[arash_hazeghi]

Awesome Shot..

Hi Krishina, in the critique forum we try to elaborate what we like about a picture and why. Please let us know (in detail) what is awesome about Dan's photo. We try not to become like "Face Book" with those passive "great shot" comments

Best

[Steve Kaluski]

Spot on timing Dan to get those outstretch wings, was this from a series of frames? Great detail and the open beak is a killer. The mid grey backdrop just emphasises the colouring of the plumage with no distracting colours or objects to draw the eye, it isolates the subject well, good choice in positioning, a joy to view.

TFS
Steve

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Hi Krishina, in the critique forum we try to elaborate what we like about a picture and why. Please let us know (in detail) what is awesome about Dan's photo. We try not to become like "Face Book" with those passive "great shot" comments

Best

Hi Arash,

Thanks for the letting me the know about the same. Still trying to get hang of it (posting in the forums in a correct manner).

I really like that there are no background distractions that clutter the subject.

Subject Isolation and the Wing position were Awesome for me.

Also nice explanation about Pine Siskins. I will read and learn a bit about these birds.

Thanks
Krishna

[Bill Dix]

Fabulous display pose, and amazing that you captured this FF. I guess it shows how useful it is to observe a bird's behavior long enough to anticipate how it will move. I can't tell you how many half-bird frames I have had to trash. Perch is nicely coordinated with the bird, and the plain bg sets it all off well. I suppose a little more SS could have helped if you weren't fighting the available light.

[Glenn Conlan]

Nice to portray a behavior of a bird with a complimentary perch and excellent focal plane with the entire subject being sharp

[Mike Poole]

Really interesting pose, love the wing span.

Mike

[Marina Scarr]

This is one heck of a killer pose!!! Never seen this before. Killer perch and BG. Did you enhance catch light or add it?

[John Robinson]

Good one Dan.
Seen ours do this as a sort of aggression display at the garden feeders. Never pictured it though.
Nice perch positioning too.
Fine work
JohnR

[Lorant Voros]

Beautiful pose that I haven't seen before either. I like the colors on the bird and the composition. I wonder about the catchlight...is it natural? Nice shot again, Dan.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey guys, glad you like it! They sure were fun to photograph, and I got a few more keeper frames of the behaviour too.

Marina and Lorant, yep, as indicated in my text I added the catchlight. It squared off a bit after resizing...

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent frame Dan, love the pose, BG and the moss on the perch. My only wish is that the birds topside and wing surface were parallel to the back of the camera but a great shot nevertheless

TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice shot Dan, I love the pose and the setup. I am currently trying to get some shots of siskins in my back garden and then round at my friend's - he has a dozen of them coming in daily!
I don't want to pour cold water on what is a successful image but I do feel that a faster shutter speed would have helped reveal more details in the head.

[keith mitchell]

Beautiful clean simple image Dan,feather detail looks very natural and right in my eyes,colours look good and that'a a very nice BG.

Keith.

[David Salem]

What a cool looking Pose and I really like me perch that you caught him on. Nice colors and feather details too. Well done Dan

[William Dickson]

Whats not to like, very nice image, I really love that pose.

Will