Blue grouse displaying

[D. Robert Franz]

We found this male blue grouse displaying on territitory during our spring Yellowstone IPT in early June a few years ago. He was very cooperative. Running out of ideas I decided to go real tight and try to emphasize the colorful gular sac and eye coomb of the grouse. I put the 2x on an tried to work around all the vegetation.

Canon Eos 1d2, EF600mmF4IS, 2x, ISO 320, 1/80th @ F8, -1/3 comp in evaluative

[David Hemmings]

This is a lovely intimate portrait Robert.Maybe a little more room on top.

[Glenn Bartley]

This is so nice. What a great portrait! I love the grasses.

[Bob Boner]

Wow! I wouldn't change a thing. Very intimate view of a gorgeous bird. Thanks for sharing.

[Judd Patterson]

You have a real beauty here! I love the tight composition that you chose, focusing us in on the great plumage details on a displaying grouse. The foreground grasses are very well placed so that they add to the image and don't obscure important details. Just for your own information, the AOU split the Blue Grouse back into Dusky and Sooty Grouse a few years ago...and this is a Dusky Grouse. You'll find the very similar Sooty along the west coast mountains ranges and on up into Alaska.