Great Bowerbird

[Colin Driscoll]

This is the male Great Bowerbird from northern Australia. As with all bowerbirds this one has a display area for enticing females. The shrub at the right was at the centre of the display and he kept picking at the bark of the stems, I presume marking the spot as his. These birds collect all sorts of trinkets to impress the females with and this one was the proud owner of a stainless steel wool pad that he had stolen from a nearby campsite. He was also doing well with a female while showing off a small zuccini end until another male stole it from him!

They are fascinating birds and that pink, punk hairdo just appears from under the feathers on the nape when he gets serious about a girl.



50D, 100-400 @ 360, 1/500, f7.1, iso auto @ 1250, ev 0.
High iso in a very shady spot which is pushing it for the 50D but maybe came out OK? There was no major noise in the raw image and I have no in camera noise reduction set.

As always, thanks for you comments.

[Harshad Barve]

what a beautiful looking species , would have loved to see more headturn, but do not bother me much
TFS

[Kiran Poonacha]

The NI has surely eaten up the details, selective cleaning should help. great looking bird. thanks for sharing...

[Randy Stout]

Colin:

HA mentioned, but I know you wanted to show the punk hairdo! Good shooting angle.

The high ISO seemed to work well, doesn't appear noisy to me.

I might consider toning down the bright plant in the LLC.

Thanks for the backstory, always adds a lot to the image for me.

Randy

[David Fletcher]

Colin:

HA mentioned, but I know you wanted to show the punk hairdo! Good shooting angle.

The high ISO seemed to work well, doesn't appear noisy to me.

I might consider toning down the bright plant in the LLC.

Thanks for the backstory, always adds a lot to the image for me.

Randy

:). Ditto that. Thanks for sharing this and the info.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Dificult situation, simply stunning looking bird, nice low angle and detail, ambient is a bit too bussy to me. and I wish for a better head anlge.
Congratulaitons!

[Stu Bowie]

Interesting pink hairdo, and good job on the high ISO. Pity he didnt turn towards you.

[Kathy Reeves]

I love the angle showing the pink hairdo and back feathers. Very interesting bird and I appreciate the story details. Very interesting.

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks for the comments :) As for the HA, Randy picked it first- at the perfect HA that beautiful pink patch is just a thin edge. It even looks more dramatic from directly behind.