Spinifex Pigeon

[Simon Bennett]

Spinifex Pigeon Geophaps plumifera photographed near Winton, central western Queensland. These are my favourite Australian bird. They occur around rocky waterholes in the arid interior, and get about in quite large flocks running around on the ground like quail. Spinifex is a spikey grass that is very widespread throughout arid Australia. The background is a bit messy, but it does allows you too see the head plume which got lost in the spinifex in the background of other shots I took.

Canon 40D, EF500 f/4 + 1.4 tc, tripod, Evaluative, Av, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/1000, Vertical crop from horizontal image, a couple of grass stems digitally disguised.

[Colin Driscoll]

I've stalked these fellows and agree that they are difficult to get a good clean shot of. Your shot shows off the species very nicely. I guess there are other possibilities for your framing but I don't know what you had to work with originally.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Such a beautiful Bird, Nice light too.. wished for a cleaner BG.

[Morkel Erasmus]

lovely shot and you managed to make it pop in a busy environment. great light too!

[Mohanram Kemparaju]

Beautiful looking bird Simon, but too central IMO.If you can crop off the blurred foreground, it might look better.I like the cluttered BG, shows the habitat...

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Wish for a cleaner BG too. That looks like a dome tent? :) Probably not. What gorgeous species. I cannot wait to see these some day. Nice and sharp and almost perfect HA. :)

[Harshad Barve]

What a species this is , Fantastic
agreed with Mohan here , Cluttered BG do not distract me as it is a part of habitat
lovely , TFS

[Mital Patel]

excellent image. superb catch light and beautiful detail of the birds presented here. i like it.

[Ken Watkins]

What an amazing bird, for a pigeon it is remarkably colourful. Ok the BG is a bit messy but I can easily ignore that.

[Subharghya]

Gorgeous !! Really Very Gorgeous Bird !! I don't have any problem with the BG as it is natural ... Thanks for sharing this Beautiful Bird's image with us

[Dr.Pranay Rao Juvvadi]

What an amazing species this is! No problem with the BG, as it gives one an idea of the surrounds. My attention was smack on this spectacular species!

[Charlie VanTassel]

Beautiful, Simon. An amazing bird. I'm okay with the background, but it might be nice if it were just a little more oof.

[sree.kumar.h]

Simon thanks for introducing me to a new species. Now I can understand why it's your favourite bird. Agree with the rest on cropping a bit of the blurred forground. IMO, reducing the brightness would help.