Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image early this morning, The hairs on the barbed wire are from cows that have rubbed the wire. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED, image captured at 400mm
1/800 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV -2/3 ISO 100 Auto 1 WB HH
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2019 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped for composition and presenatation

[annmpacheco]

Hi Joe, very nice scissor-tail with a sweet head turn . IQ is wonderful, colors and details with a dreamy BG combined makes this a pleasure to view. I like the cow "feather" part of the intrigue/story! For two weeks in Texas this was my in flight target bird:final score: flycatcher 100 Ann 0 . Im still chasing em and have challenged myself to persevere, etc, ... Any flight shots for you?

[David Roach]

110% perfect -10% for perch, still 100% perfection. TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice indeed, I don't mind the barbed wire, for me it is now a part of the countryside, especially when it has a few hairs in it. the bird looks good, I like the pose, i think a little judicious use of luminosity at the raw stage would help plumage detail.
Did you really need NR? I am guessing you applied it selectively to the background.

[Bill Dix]

Lovely bird and BG, Great pose. I had hoped to get one of these guys on our trip, but my score was the same as Ann's. Barbed wire is where they like to perch, so no nits from me.

[Dorian Anderson]

Bird looks great doesn't redeem the wire for me. Looks like I'm in the minority on that though.....

[John Mack]

Nice to see the bird on some barbed wire. The tail is pretty neat. Nice pose on the bird.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Bird looks great doesn't redeem the wire for me. Looks like I'm in the minority on that though.....

Come on Dorian, if you can live with bands certainly barbed wire could not be a problem. Thank you for viewing and commenting, I always appreciate your comments.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.