Lovebird and Sunflower

[Scott Frye]

Peach-faced Lovebird at Gilbert Water Ranch (Gilbert, Arizona)

This was shot at 7:30 this morning and the Arizona sun was so bright, even at that early hour, that I had pump down the EC to minus 1 and a third

1/2000 at f11 and ISO800 EC -4/3
Bigma at 500mm
Canon 40D

[Mike Milicia]

Beautiful colors with wonderful perch and background!

It's a bit tight at the sides and bottom and has a bit too much negative space at the top
for my taste. There's something funky going on with blurring at the back of the head.
Looks like some king of postprocessing artifact.

[Arthur Morris]

Good EXP control. Great colors, and the sunflower is a plus. Zooming a bit wider so that you had more room for the tail followed by a crop to a square might have worked well. Do you know what this bird is doing in AZ?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Neat bird, is this a native species or an escapee? The bird looks a bit oversharpened and I would give it more room left and bottom. Peter mentioned the problem at the bird's back.

[Scott Frye]

The lovebird is feral. They are found throughout the valley appearing in folks backyards and I have seen them at the water ranch in flocks of 8-10. They are here pretty much year round.