Pin-tailed Whudah on guava tree

[Raul Quinones]

From my parents backyard, Aguadilla, PR.
My father keeps bird feeders on his backyard, which attracts several song birds.
This species was introduced by the pet trade, and it is breeding and thriving on the Island. This male had the breeding tail which adds about eight inches to this tiny bird, which is about 5 inches.

I know the colors on the background competes with the main subject, but since the bird is almost b/w, I thought that there was no need to de-sat it... IMO the guava helps balance the picture, but I have been wrong before.

Canon EOS 40D, EF500mm f/4L IS USM
Shooting Date/Time 7/6/2009 174:23
1/250, F7.1, ISO 800, 500.0 mm

C/C are appreciated, Raul

[Arthur Morris]

The image is sharp. I like all the colors, and the bird handsome, but there are several major problems:

1-the whites look too bright at best, over-exposed at worse... Please see the various tutorials in the ER,
2-the bird's head is turned a bit too far away from you.
3-you have clipped the bird's tail and the fruit.

Perhaps a better option would have been to go vertical and try for the whole bird...

[Daniel Cadieux]

Not only is the clipped tail too bad, but so is the clipped fruit. Artie has touched on other areas that I also agree with. It is a very attractive bird, its red bill standing out nicely from its black and white plumage. Neat BG too!

[Harshad Barve]

beautiful species , All points well covered and agreed
TFS

[Brian Barcelos]

Everything has been covered as far as improving. I must say that is a very sweet and different looking BG.

Brian

[Ilija Dukovski]

Yes the tail as said but you've got nice colors there,
are these all over the island or only in a part of PR?

[Connie Mier]

Hi Raul, I agree on all points above, but it is such a nice setting to capture this bird.
Connie

[Raul Quinones]

Yes the tail as said but you've got nice colors there,
are these all over the island or only in a part of PR?

As far as I know there are all over, I seen them on the west and east coast on the island.

Thanks all other for comments.

I known cutting the tail is normally a no-no, but my goal was to show the details, if the tail is included, most of the face and feather-head is lost, plus there are 1000s of pics with the tail. I was going for something different, but obviously I miss the mark :).

Thanks, Raul