Northern Rough-winged Swallow

[John Mack]

Northern rough-winged swallow at its nest site. At my local national wildlife refuge i visit they were doing some road work and left a pile of dirt. A few rough-winged swallows decided it would make a good burrow for them. Now they can't do anything with the dirt, but the photographers are loving it. Image made from vehicle. Image adjustments in Lightroom. Hand held,small crop.

Canon 5D MarkIII
Sigma 150-600 Contemporary
600mm
f6.3
ISO 1600
1/320sec

[William Dickson]

Looking good John. I like the colours on the bird blending real well with the BG. Nice look back pose. I also like how we can see into the shadows of the burrow. Glad you left the green in. Adds to the image. These birds are almost identical to the Sand Martins over here.

Will

[Isaac Grant]

Agree with what William said. Nice look at the species and the burrow as well. Amazing how well they blend in. William they look really similar until they turn around. Rough wings have a brown wash across the breast as opposed to the strongly demarcated band of the Sand Martin aka Bank Swallow (we have them here as well).

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very nice, John! I like pretty much everything about this, especially the depth created by the sharp subject in front of the hole. Nicely balanced comp. Well done...

[gail bisson]

Very nice John.
I agree with all of the above comments. I like the little twig of green as well,
Gail

[Alex Becker]

Late to the party but really like this shot. Nice look back pose and really shots the environment. The eye looks very nice. TFS