40D, 600mm F4, 1/3200sec, f/4, ISO 400
Another South Texas specialty.
It's busy, but to me this captures the Long Billed Thrasher. They are always running around in brush.
Great spose and colour palette. Habitat frames the bird well but I would be temped to consider removing the sharp twig just in front of the bird and the OOF one touching it's back. Low angle works well.
Tony has recommended trying to remove the same two branches I was going to! I like the rest too...and I too feel it captures the essence of such ground dwelling species. Nice low angle, and the distant BG looks great.
Jeff, count me in as one who never minds a little busy habitat added into the shot. Getting a bird on a nice clean perch always looks great but really how often do we see them like that naturally. Your image captures this fella right on his home base. To me that's never a bad thing. I agree that I might be tempted to remove the twig though just in front of the birds face. You keep the general feel to the image but lose the most distracting element. Just a thought.