Red Bishop

[Dave Barnes]

Not an easy bird to expose with the black and red feathers but they always give a great show during the breading season.
Camera Model Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/1600
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
ISO Speed 640
Exposure Compensation +1

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great looking bird this Bhai, Loved this pose and Loved the comp....

[Luis Villablanca]

I also loved the pose and composition. The background is very nice too.
I noticed the red and green channels clipping at a few places. Could it be a jpeg artifact?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the composition, perch, BG, sharpness and look-back pose. I would try to get more details in the blacks. I'm wondering about the color of the bird, I remember seeing images of this species that looked more red. Is this a gender and/or age difference?

[Betsie Storm]

Beautiful capture, Dave, I specially like the feather detail and sharpness and lively eye. I often get them looking a bit soft when they puff their feathers up, never worked out why. The dark (thunder cloud?) BG makes the image special. The more orangey colour does occur in my experience.

[Dave Barnes]

Thanks Kiran, Luis, Axel and Betsie for looking and for comments.
Axel I belive the colour is as I remember it but you had me on a search.
I attach a link to Chris van Rooyens site,: http://www.wildlifephotography.co.za/). Go to image library, small birds, Southern Red Bishop you will find a page of images. Note that the colour is variable and I think bright orange would be a more accurate discription. They seem to look lighter when viewed from the back. This colour is only present during the breeding season it does change.
Betsie the feathers vibrate when they puff them up and this could be the reason?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks, Dave! Interesting to see the color range in this species.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the dark grey backdrop to this image...it sets off the sunshine on the bird and perch quite beautifully. The lower arched blade adds alot to the comp. This guy looks like it could be a relative to our Bobolinks here.

[Jim Fenton]

I like the pose and the perch and love the grey background as it's so different.

Overall, the perch and the bird look hot to my eyes. perhaps using the selective color adjustments you could add in some black or at least tone various channels down with individual hue adjustments?

[Ken Watkins]

I agree with Dave, getting a good image of this bird is very difficult, not only because of the awkward colours but also that it rarely sits still for long. Just going by memory this seems a little too orange, but as has been said colours vary tremendously.

[Declan Troy]

Axel, most bright red/orange colors in birds are from carotenoid pigments. Birds can't make these molecules from scratch (but can modify them) so have to acquire them from their diet. The end result is there tends to be quite a bit of variability in the quantity and sometimes the type of carotenoid deposited at the time the feathers are growing leading to variability in the appearance of individuals. Take a close look at the next flock of redpolls or house finches that come your way and you will see quite a range of colors.

Daniel, the closest thing you have to Red Bishops around Ottawa are House Sparrows. Not real close but classified closer together than anything native to the New World.

[Callie de Wet]

Dave! Fancy meeting you here! Lovely detail in the plumage. Nice Bishop and the colour is just a function of age and light. I have shot very bleak orange to very red bishops, and they all are true renditions of this bird.
I post a very red one, taken a long time ago for colour purposes.

[Dave Barnes]

Thanks to all for looking and for the valued input.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very interesting, thanks, Declan and Callie!