Male Red Crossbill Portrait

[Daniel Cadieux]

This guy came in real close, basically to MFD, on this sloping dirt mound to scrape some grit. Its' head was down most of the time but a few pishing noises got its attention just a bit for a proper head angle.

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/125s., f/5.6, ISO 1600 (the bird flew away as I tried going for f/8 @ ISO 3200), natural light, handheld, full-frame, darkened the pupil and lightened the iris, minor clean up on the dirt and the bill.

[John Mack]

Very nice. Looks great for that high ISO. Nice composition and detail on the bird is wonderful.

[Dorian Anderson]

Lovely look at that specially evolved beak! Feather detail on the face is really great as well. Nicely done, Daniel.

[Jim Wetherall]

I love this! Great portrait Daniel. Fantastic feather detail, head angle, eye catchlight, composition. Only thing I could think of that I might alter if this was mine was the greyish blobs in the background below and to the left of the Crossbills beak, but that is me really nit picking! I wish the bird life was this obliging in my neck of the woods!

[Isaac Grant]

Feather detail is just great. Love the head angle and super cool getting this shot at 1/125!

[nickolas thurston]

I love the shallow depth of field and the detail the eye looks very good as well. I also really like the composition, it's really tight but not cramped.

[Doug Brown]

f5.6 does the job here Daniel. Nice portrait that highlights the crossbill quite well.