Is it Real, or is it "Counterfeit"? #4

[Arthur Morris]

This displaying male Brown-headed Cowbird was photographed at a feeder set-up at Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario with the Canon 800mm lens and the EOS-1D MIII. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/100 sec. at f/7.1. Fill flash with Better Beamer at -2 2/3 stops.

Any signs of added body parts, branch removal, or other counterfeit efforts?

Do let me know what you think of the image too. Thanks.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Dave Phillips]

this one may have a head transplant as I see some strange color/detail fall off from the brown.
And it looks a bit strange under the wing.

But it is so hard and needless to pixel peep......looks great without all the scrutiny.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Ok let's play!

I believe you fixed the 3 lower rectrices and clone something on the right hand side, may be a branch or something big?

Great alert pose, the cocked tail adds to the image. I find the perch way too bright.

[Stu Bowie]

Lovely pose, especially the upright tail. The flash has brought the colours out nicely. Superb BG with the pastel colours. Comp wise, I would maybe take a bit off the right, and left, and change to a vertical crop. I would tone down the perch a tad too. Cant see any evidence of surgical work.

[Arthur Morris]

Dave Phillips gets the grand prize with a score of 50%. Yes to the head-ectoomy, no to "strange under the wing." How he detected the head transplant I will never know. Everybody else flunked :) :) :) but at least they played.

I took the sharp head from another frame in the story and brought it in with a QM. That head, however, had the nictitating membrane covering the eye so I borrowed an eye from the first frame in the series. This, a triple body parts composite. Above it the original base image.

[Arthur Morris]

ps: The perch looks fine on my calibrated monitor with the calibration strip looking fine too....