Cuban Tody

[Paul Lagasi]

This was my 3rd trip to Cuba, and I'd searched for this bird before without luck.
I heard this bird calling from a small tree, following the sound I just couldn't see this little beauty. A great bird for my 765 world species.
They really are tiny but as I got closer the sky opened up and boom out popped the pinks and greens. I moved closer fired off this one image, bam he was gone. I did manage to see many endemic birds (Cuban Trogan, Loggerhead Kingbird, La Sagra's Flycatcher, Cuban Pewee) that day but the rain started and I was relegated to binoculars, camera had to be packed. It just begs for another trip .. hopefully a sunny day and a better bicycle (but thats another story)

D700
70-200 2.8 vr w/1.4 TC @ 280mm
1/800
f/4
iso-1000
-0.3
Cropped 50%

[Steven Kersting]

Nice pic and neat bird. Love the catchlight, did you use flash? (you mention it was rainy but sky had broke)

[Dan Brown]

A sweet little bird that I would love to see, Paul! I like the HA and the sharpness for the big crop! I would be tempted to reduce the crop to emphasize the small size of the bird and boost the illusion of better resolution. A keeper either way! What a great sounding trip!

[Dan Busby]

Hey Paul - congrats on your good ear to pick this bird up in the first place! What a nice little puffed-up beauty. Nice perch and angle. I am sure you felt fortunate just to get off a shot. I wonder if something could be done with the oof background elements .... Would love to hear the bicycle story next time I'm in your area

Dan

[Arsdel Fluesmeier]

What a beauty. I lived in Cuba for a year and never saw one, Well done.

[Pieter de Waal]

What a catch with one shot. Love those amazing colours. A first for me TFS.

[Fred Canter]

Great job Paul, a beautiful looking Tody. The upward head tilt is the normal look I see in our version also, they are always looking up to find flying insects. These are cousins of our endemic PR Tody and the eye color indicates this is a male. Nice job on the branches in the background, as their habitat can be very dense.

[Arthur Morris]

Quite a loverly bird and congrats on the lifer. Having a 500 and a 1.4X TC would have been quite nice! The diagonal o-o-f twig bugs me and the eye could use a bit of Eye Doctor work.

[Kurt Bowman]

Looks like the bird held up very well to the large crop. The colors are great! Only small nit is the one OOF twig that intersects with the bird...the other two OOF branches are no bother to me at all.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Paul, Would love to go to Cuba to bad I would be arrested when I returned to the U.S. , love the colors but think you could go with a looser crop and run a round of noise reduction on the BG.

[Dave Leroy]

It is a dandy looking little bird and good for you to get the photo.

Photo quality held up well to large crop.

Dave

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks Everyone, for suggestions I'll work on the image this weekend and repost
Steve..no flash, rain came after this image
Dan Brown, Don..I'll try that and repost
Artie...it was a killer climb but yes I'd have loved my 500
Dan Busby...maybe we can get that Chardine guy up here again this spring