Brown-headed Cowbird

[Peter Farrell]

They can be a nuisance at the feeders, but sometimes they pose nicely.
Backyard setup. Sony A700, 70-400G @400mm, f5.6, 1/500, iso800, +0.3ec.
I cloned out a portion of another bird in LLC. Levels, S/H, sharpen on subject.

[Norm Dulak]

Hi Peter.

Nice effort here. I like the background, which allows the bird to really stand out. And I find the bird interesting despite its alleged sometimes behavior at feeders.

My suggestions for possible improvement would be to give the bird more headroom by adding canvass above it if the available file data permit it, remove a bit of space to the left by cropping, and cut back a bit on the sharpening. I see a sharpening halo on my monitor.

But TFS!

Norm

[Dave Leroy]

Good looking picture Peter.

I really like the pose and bird is nice and sharp.

I agree about the halo.

A further suggestion would be to have a little bit of room under all of the perch.

Really nice.

Dave

[ChasMcRae]

I like the distinct visualization of separation of the brown head and body. In a lot of lighting this does not stand out. Good representation of a bird that does not lend itself to "attractive" photo.
The tightness does not bother me ,but a lot of people like more "movement" room.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good details and colours on this fella. Not a popular bird, but visually subtly striking IMO. A bit tight in the frame, and the whitish halo surrounding the bird is distracting...it does not look like a sharpening halo though, perhaps some aggressive S/H or other BG manipulation?