We spent three days at a coffee plantation/lodge in Tanzania and there were many song birds that came to the feeder in the morning just across from the deck. Our guide said this bird and a few similar ones were Baglafetch Weavers, aka Reichnow's Weaver. C&C encouraged and greatly appreciated.
1dm3; f8, 1/800; ISO 1250; 1-400 with 1.4x @560 hh
Katie I like the inclusion of habitat in your images especialy as these are not setups. I like the complimentary colour of the background matching the bird, sharpness and head position. If it were mine I would tone down the bright upper part of the foliage and also trim a little off the bottom so that the bird is not in the centre.
Your guide is right according to my Field Guide - "Baglafecht Weaver". This is a female, the males have a yellow crown but according to the field guide the colour varies considerably.
A very nice looking bird, with, as Pieter nice sharpness and head position. In contrast though, given the birds slightly downward facing position, I would first crop from the top to the top of the leftmost stem. This would make the composition better and deal with the bright portions on the upper portion of the middle stem all in one go. Depending on the look and the available quality, I would also try cropping from the bottom to the large leaf on the left to create a horizontal. I am not totally sure about that, but it would be interesting to see.
Sounds like you had a good time there! Great looking bird, the pale eye is quite striking. I like how its foot is resting on the bud. I agree the image could use an alternate crop to de-centre the subject. Either UR or LR would work. As is I'm not fond of the perch going from brightly sunlit above to shaded below. I'd consider toning down that upper part (burn tool should work fine), and also the brighter part of the BG by desaturating it a bit. Doing this would even out the power struggle between those two attention grabbers and help deflect that to the bird.
Baglafetch Weaver??
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