head of a flicker

[John Chardine]

I have a neat situation at home where I can photograph a feeder station about 5 m away from a back room of the house. It's a very comfortable blind/hide setup!

While waiting for chickadees and goldfinches to perch on nearby branches, I spotted some movement above in the Jackpine. I was amazed to see a Yellow-shafted Flicker looking down at me. Remarkably, most of the upper body and head of the bird was not obscured by branches so I fired off three exposures. Blur lower right is OOF parts of the tree.

For those outside the Americas, flickers are a diverse group of New World woodpeckers. This species spends a lot of time on the ground and rarely does what woodpeckers do.

Image was lightly cropped for comp. BG was run over with a blur brush and BG highlights were burned-in to reduce impact.

Hope you like! Comments welcome!

Canon EOS 40D, 500mm f4
capture date: Sunday, October 12, 2008 35:27 PM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 640
shutter speed: 1/800
aperture: f4.0
exposure bias: -0.3
metering: Pattern
flash: ON, auto, -1 2/3 (I think), no beamer

[Doug Brown]

Hi John! Nice close-up of a Flicker. Sharpness and eye contact are excellent. I'd like to see the bird a little brighter and the area of the BG around the beak toned down. Kind of like this.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Excellent portrait of the flicker with good eye contact and detail. I agree with Doug's comments and appreciate you sharing this with us John.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Good repost, but overall, I like the image! Verty nice portrait! Congratulaitons!