Spotted pardalote (male)

[Glenn Pure]

I've been busy with home renovations for the past month or so and therefore have not been posting lately... but now clear to get out with camera a little again. This is another visitor to the birdbath in my garden. A tiny, cute little bird that is eyeing off the birdbath below. I've been having lots of visitors to the birdbath lately, possibly due to a long spell of dry weather. There is a bit of backlighting from the right which has blown the extreme right of the chin and some of the spots on the crown. Crop is maybe half the frame area.

As always, thank you for looking and for any comments you are kind enough to share.

Technical: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/200 sec, f7.1, ISO 2000. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 2.5, crop, lighting adjustments, NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Modest NR to bird and stronger NR to background. Bird only sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian Blur) after final size reduction.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Nice Image. I really like the yellow colors against the green background. I do wish I could see the tail a bit more. Interesting how close you got to this one using 400mm Lens.

Was this shot using Blind ?

Thanks for sharing.

[gail bisson]

What a sweet little bird!
Nice simple perch and great BG.Did you clone out some branches behind the bird? It looks "streaky?"
The little areas that are blown are so small that it does not affect IQ IMHO,
Gail

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks Krishna and Gail. No blind used but I was quite close. I was lurking in the branches of an Acacia not far behind the bird bath. I often find that if I stand still, little birds will largely ignore me (but I am partly obscured by branches). I often have them moving around above me, not far from my head. A joy even if they don't pose for a photo.

To give you an idea how small these are, the branch where the bird is perched is 9mm in diameter (about 1/3 inch).

What a sweet little bird!
Nice simple perch and great BG.Did you clone out some branches behind the bird? It looks "streaky?"
The little areas that are blown are so small that it does not affect IQ IMHO,
Gail

No cloning here Gail - I generally avoid it. The streakiness is just the way the background has behaved at that distance and with the bokeh that lens creates. The bokeh will be different to what you might see with your big prime.

[Lorant Voros]

Beautiful bird with nice colors and details. I would have thought there was some cloning in the BG....nice to read the not on it. Well done.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Glenn, glad you completed your home renovations, and then a perfect time to get out to mother nature and smell the roses. I like the angled pose here, excellent plumage detail, and I like the colours. I tend to try and not get too close, as you lose quite a bit of DOF on any subject. I agree its good to fill the frame but at the expense of losing DOF.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice bird and photograph and I even even like the gentle backlight. Did you reect the perch over the bath?

with love, artie

[annmpacheco]

Sweet image, lovely details, the colors are wonderful. Glad to see you posting again!

[Tim Foltz]

Glenn, you brought us another new bird, the colors, HA and BG are very nice.

-Tim

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you all for your comments. I do like to bring a bit of new species variety here when I can.

As for the setup, yes, I have installed this branch over my birdbath. I hammered a wooden stake in the ground next to the bird bath. It has a hole drilled horizontally near the top, and above the level of the birdbath. I insert a nice looking dead branch from the garden into that hole (with end whittled so it will fit nicely in the hole). Then twist it around until it is where I want it and looks natural. Will post a photo if I get a chance but light too harsh outside at the moment to get a decent shot of setup.

Hi Glenn, glad you completed your home renovations, and then a perfect time to get out to mother nature and smell the roses. I like the angled pose here, excellent plumage detail, and I like the colours. I tend to try and not get too close, as you lose quite a bit of DOF on any subject. I agree its good to fill the frame but at the expense of losing DOF.

I do agree about getting too close Stu. I have been there before. Sometimes I find myself with a bird only a metre away going about its business. Simply too close to get a decent shot and sometimes even unable to focus. Ideally I would have used a smaller aperture on this but I was struggling with poor light (the story of my life) and already pushing the ISO and shutter speed to places I really didn't want to go. By taking lots of frames in this instance, I got a few that worked.

[Glenn Conlan]

This is a very special little bird that I didn't know existed. Great detail thanks for posting

[Glenn Pure]

This is a very special little bird that I didn't know existed. Great detail thanks for posting

Thanks Glenn. A lot of Australia's avifauna is unique. After all, we are the putative origin of all songbirds according to the current scientific thinking. One interesting thing about this species is that it nests in burrows that it excavates in earth banks - a bit like many/all bee-eaters.

[Isaac Grant]

Love these birds and you have captured it really well. Nice feather details, background and head angle. I saw these around Genoloan Caves along the little river that is very close to the entrance. One of the birds I really wanted to see in Australia. Also there is a chance that I may be spending the summer in Sydney. If I do then I will reach out so we can connect.

[Glenn Pure]

Love these birds and you have captured it really well. Nice feather details, background and head angle. I saw these around Genoloan Caves along the little river that is very close to the entrance. One of the birds I really wanted to see in Australia. Also there is a chance that I may be spending the summer in Sydney. If I do then I will reach out so we can connect.

Thanks Isaac. Sound like you have some connections over here. Please contact me if you are in Sydney and have time to drop in to Canberra (only a little over 3 hrs drive). I'd be happy to show you around and organise some outings. I will send you a PM or email so you will have my email address for contact.

[David Salem]

I have always loved these little guys and would love to see one some day. You did a great job capturing this guy and I really like the details, colors, perch and BG. Looks about perfect to me.