Handsome, ain’t I?

[Santanu Banik]

We were after a female Kestrel; saw this beautiful bird right underneath the tree where the Kestrel had perched.
The Hoopoe was on grass; probably this chap had noticed we were interested in the Kestrel only :-)
It suddenly flew up and perched on a smaller tree in front of the one where the Kestrel had perched; clearly indicating his thoughts – “I know she is beautiful; but I am handsome, too :p”
And yes, we acknowledged him :D

Shot with Canon 40D & Canon 600mm F/4 IS lens plus a 1.4x TC.

[Randy Stout]

Santanu:

A striking bird. What a crest.

Nice head angle, a bit tight in the frame for me, esp. to the left. I think it would display better if a bit brighter. I would be tempted to clean the spot off the top of the beak.

Thanks so much for sharing, and I always enjoy the back story about the image.

Cheers

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Beautiful bird, great eye contact and pose. It looks a bit too contrasty on my monitor and I would remove the BG noise. Below the birds are some spots that look like cloning artifacts. I would give it a little bit more room on the right. Keep them coming!

[Tony Whitehead]

I like the pose and composition and it is nice to see this species on a perch as they are usually on the ground. The image looks underexposed with a lot of blocked up dark areas. If captured in RAW I would reprocess with some +EC and use recovery for the highlights if needed. Posting as sRGB is preferred for web display as most browsers are not colour space aware. Cloning artifacts mentioned. Looking forward to more images from India.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Again, The guys above are right on with their comments. The biggest needs are to go brighter and smooth out the BKGR lumps.

[Thomas Herou]

Love the light and the pose.Maybe a notch too tight composition for my taste.