Originally Posted by
Arthur Morris
A cool bird and a cool image, but.... With night photography of birds on the ground, getting lower increases the flashed look and the night-time look. There is even flash fall off from the side of the bird to the face. And with the bird on a ridge and empty space beyond the night-time/flash look is increased even more. Better if he had been in front of the little ridge so that the flash would have illuminated the grass behind the bird. Better also if you had been higher.... Perhaps the image above will give you an idea of what I am talking about. I chose a subject with a BKGR fairly proximal to the bird and worked from a near-standing position.
The Bonin's Petrel was photographed in pitch dark with flash as main light technique and manual flash.