Romance

[PhilCook]

Male Splendid Fairy-wren....Malurus splendens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splendid_Fairywren

A shy species of the more arid regions of Australia, but quite common in their range. They all too often stays hidden deep within the thorn bushes, but occasionally breaking cover especially during breeding/courting season. This one enticed out of hiding using playback. The species has a delightful habit of courting his girlfriend by picking little blue or purple flowers and presenting to his prospective lover, in this case he seen me as a possible rival for her attention so lured her away with his gift...sooooo human hehehe

Have cloned out a vertical branch on the right and a dried leaf directly behind the head to make a very clean backdrop of typical " boas " composition together with dry open grasslands.
Canon 7D + 500 f4 + 1.4 x TC......700mm, 1/1250, f8, ISO400, -0.3EV, pattern metering, no flash, small crop, sharpen selectively, slight noise reduction to background

[christopher galeski]

very nice,colors of this bird magic,nice detail,nice BG.thanks.

[Tom Rambaut]

Great species - those colours! - and nice capture of behaviour. A tad soft to my eye but nice image overall.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Goregous little bird very well presented: good background and perch, fine detail in subject with equally good eye contact.

[Satish Ranadive]

Fabulous image. Beautiful colored cute bird.Loved the pose with flower in beak. I like the perch,colors,BG and details on bird.Nicely narrated.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Phil, I really like the array of blues and purples on this species, and just love how his love offering matches his colours too. I do like your smooth BG.

[Joe Senzatimore]

I wonder what he pays for a dozen roses????? One fine image. A beautiful bird I have never seen , so thanks for posting this sweet image and telling a great story.

[Richard Unsworth]

What a great little bird, love the color , presentation. soft but it's all there, the little offering adds to this
well done for the open shot

[PhilCook]

Thankyou people, gotta love Austraklias Wrens

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Ha! Gorgeous bird and a great story to go along, Phil. Pose, perch, bg, all nice.

[Ofer Levy]

Must be one of the best shots of this bird that I have seen!!!

[jack williamson]

I like all of it. The bird is gorgeous and the perch is excellent as is the BG. Well done.

Jack

[Arno Ellmer]

Excellent capture of a delightful bird,Phil . Never seen one before.Il love the pose, the splended colours and the tiny offering is a nice moment in nature that you captured so well..Well done overall !

[Daniel Cadieux]

Beautiful!! Those blues are so wonderful. Great job with the setup (perch, bacjground, comp). The petal is icing on the cake!!

[Dave Leroy]

Very cute bird and a lovely photo. Good for you to get it out in the open and flower is an excellent bonus.

[dankearl]

What a beautiful bird, very well done, Phil!

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose nice colors, good perch and a great BG. very handsome specie thanks for sharing excellent work

[Tony Whitehead]

Definitely lives up to his name, Phil. Lovely colors, pose, BG. I might be tempted to try a bit of burning in on the perch to lower it's brightness slightly. Great job.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very nice male! lovely blue feathers, super clean BG and eye contact. Well done!

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Exotic image . Just love the colours , perch and the BG ...Brilliant !