This wild Little Egret was nesting in amongst Grey Herons and Cattle egrets in the trees of the Barcelona Zoo in Parc de la Ciutadella. I had only two bad angles to view the rookery from and no large flash to help with the harsh light and shadow. I was still pleased to add this species to my bird photo collection and I like the head turn.
Levels adjusted. Perhaps a bit of selective sharpening might have helped?
Canon Rebel XT, Sigma 70-200mm F 2.8, Sigma 2x teleconverter = 400mm. F7.1, ISO 400, 1/1600 sec. Cropped to ~65% of full frame.
Last edited by Stephen Stephen; 07-07-2008 at 06:01 AM.
This looks like a little blue heron Steve. When the blue herons are young they are pure white and then graduallly turn all blue. They are really beautiful birds and you did well with the exposure. Nice detail in the whites and a good head turn and composition. Congrats on adding a new species to your portfolio. !!!
An image of a new species is always great. I like the eye contact and details. A lower angle would have been great and I would try to lighten the shadows a bit.
Judy, I don't think young Little Blue Herons have a long plume on their heads (somebody correct me if I'm wrong). Stephen, you did the best you could with the situation presented.
The head turn totally saved the shot, the eye contact is very good, and they said, nature doesn't always colaborate with us and despite of that, you did well. Congrats!
Thank you Judy, Axel, Doug, Dan, Ramon and Sharna. Judy for your information according to a couple of Spanish lists that I've checked, Blue Herons (I saw one white juvenile in Ottawa once) do not occur in there but Little Egrets do.
Stephen thanks so much for the clarification. I missed that this image was taken in Barclelona and it is most interesting to me because they look so much like our little blue herons. Again many thanks Stephen !!!!