Motmot

[Tom Palmer]

Costa Rica, D450, 70-200 f/4 IS USM
Hand held, natural light, early morning, f/4, 1/100, IOS 400
I was sleeping when this Motmot perched in a tree outside our bedroom window and woke us with its call. Fortunately the bird stayed put while I put my camera together. It was so close I needed to back off the zoom to 155mm. The bedroom was an excellent blind!

[Arthur Morris]

A nice bird and relatively sharp but the rather cluttered BKGR and esp the extra branch in the middle all detract.

[Doug Brown]

Artie mentioned the BG clutter. To that I'll add that a slight head turn away from the viewer would help. Thanks for posting!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Hi Tom!
I am a Tico and know this species well, you did fine here. If I were you, and since it looks like you have a nice green area around your house, I would set up a sort of feeder, may be you could get more birds coming which means more photography opportunities. I am sure that where you live there are tons of birds since you are in an area close to the mountains and coffee plantations, keep them coming.

[Greg Basco]

Tom, ditto the comments so far, and I think Juan Carlos is right on that you seem to have a good potential for setting up some feeders with nice perches. Just ensure that you have a good distance between the feeder and the background so you can get a nice sharp bird with an out of focus green background. These guys love plantains, nearly overripe. If you ever want to come visit my house, just give me a call.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Tom Palmer]

Juan Carlos, Greg, thanks for the advice, I hope to meet you both sometime. We are moving next week to San Buenaventura, a small town about 10 miles NW of La Ensenda Lodge. I plan to expand my bird photography there.

Tom

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Juan Carlos, Greg, thanks for the advice, I hope to meet you both sometime. We are moving next week to San Buenaventura, a small town about 10 miles NW of La Ensenda Lodge. I plan to expand my bird photography there.

Tom

Wow, it sounds like you are going to have even more fun! good for you!
Yes, I also would like to meet you sometime. Let's keep in touch.:D