Theme: Mud Pie

[Colin Driscoll]

The Kookaburras in my yard love jabbing their beaks into soft dirt.
I think it must be a beak conditioning exercise. This time the dirt was wet and gluey from lots of recent rain.
1DXIII 600 f4 III 600mm HH
1/2500 f7.1 iso2500 (auto) -0.7 ev
Nearly full frame. S&H, light sharpen.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice bird and behavior but busy surroundings. wish feet were visible. head looks sharp the back details seem to have been reduced by NR/cropping a bit

TFS

[Colin Driscoll]

nice bird and behavior but busy surroundings. wish feet were visible. head looks sharp the back details seem to have been reduced by NR/cropping a bit

TFS

I did notice the softness on the back and not sure why that is so Airi, no NR and very small crop. Can't help the surroundings, that where they do their stuff

[David Roach]

Man, to have these in your backyard, they always make me smile. Love the view of the eye and the muddy bill. Yes, to a lower POV, but I love that look. You have excellent details in all the lighter shades, including back. Might be worth revisiting the raw to check mid to dark areas on back. TFS

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Colin, interesting image of a Kookaburra, always wondered what they looked like. I echo Arash's comments. Not sure why the top of the back appears soft, maybe the type of feathers. Thank you for sharing.

[Brian Sump]

Colin, I like the shot notwithstanding the FG and BG being a little busy. The mud adds some story here which helps.

Couple ideas/suggestions might be to run a little NR on the BG and try a blur gradient from front FG and top BG to see if you can get the bird to stand out a touch more.

TFS.