Stretched..by parental love

[Jay Shah]

Sunda pygmy woodpecker ...fully stretched to feed the baby. Yes, it would be great to have both birds head parallel to the camera. But as nature has it, one of the bird turns the head at the beaks get closer..But I wanted to have another go the next morning in the eternal hope of getting lucky and for once to have both birds head parallel to the camera. But by the time I could get to the spot, the baby had fledged to it's freedom... May be next year!

As the name suggests, this woodpecker is really tiny and very cute.

Nikon D810, 600 mm F4 + 1.4 X TC
f8, 1/500, ISO1000
Image cropped for tighter composition.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Jay, nice interaction with food transfer, i like that we can see the small bug too (unfortunate for him). I agree with your self critique and also wish the other woodpecker had a better HA and we could see its eyes. Also there is a magenta color cast on the image, I find the 2nd perch a bit thick and distracting especially with the highlights that cane toned down.

TFS

[Jay Shah]

Thank you Arash for your critique. For better HA at the time of mouth-to-mouth transfer, will have to wait for next season. But I do have an image with different position and will be sharing soon for comments.

[Marina Scarr]

I think this is a pretty cool and unique image. Both the chick and top of the adult's head are sharp. The prey is a plus and you have a clean BG behind their heads. I love the behavior you've captured. The only thing that could make this image even better is if the adult's head were tilted such that you could see both eyes from this vantage point. That would have been really interesting.

[Jay Shah]

Thank you Marina for your comments...I think you will agree, "IF" is what keeps us going...Having no control on what our subjects may do or will not do is I think biggest challenge and therefore also draw of bird photography..Let's see if I get luckier next year!