Great tailed grackle neck stretch

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

40D. 400f5.6 af f/6.3. iso 400. 1/400s hand-held. exp. comp. 0. Sunset light. A little crop for composition.

I was shooting Scaups. This guy landed close by( luckily against good clean BG), stretched his neck and flew off. Gave me two keeper frames.

All C&C welcome.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the alert pose, iridescent plumage and BG. If anything, a little bit head turn toward you would have been nice.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Axel, I have one. That is the other keeper. But the neck is not so stretched. I like that one too but since the pose is different, the impact is not there.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Axel, I have one. That is the other keeper. But the neck is not so stretched. I like that one too but since the pose is different, the impact is not there.

It looks great no matter what.

[Ilija Dukovski]

I love the iridescence especially that you had strong light.
The BG is great too. The HA is OK. Very nice capture.

[Jim Fenton]

Great exposure that really brought out the iridescent hues. really like the stretch :)

Excellent background.

It looks as though it could use a bit more sharpening to my eyes.

[DanWalters]

Really like the way the eye stands out. Nice dtail n the blcks and I like the clean background.

[Stu Bowie]

Excellent exposure on the dark plumage Kaustubh, sharp, and I really like the colours in the BG. Well captured.

[Vivek Kale]

nice light, and very good exposure. the colors in BG are very nice.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful detail in the blacks and superb eye contact. The BG is awesome in this image. Many thanks for sharing.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thx everyone. I have figured the best way to learn bird photography is to focus on common birds. You can come home with a new composition every time and that is so satisfying.

[Doug Brown]

You did very well Kaustubh! And I like your idea about photographing common birds. That's exactly what I did.

[Myer Bornstein]

Great picture nice BG and colors