Territorial Yellow Headed Black Bird

[Andrew Merwin]

Mark iv, 1/400, f/8, 500+2XIII, IS) 400, FF, tripod. Processed in DPP; sharpened, adjusted WB.

Imaged this lovely specimen at a nearby marsh.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice calling/singing pose and nice background, Andrew. It looks a little soft on my monitor. Maybe one more round of sharpening would improve it.

[Randy Stout]

Andrew:

This image really brings back the memories! Two years ago one appeared at a local fish hatchery, they are very rare here. You could hear him 1/4 mile away, what a wild call. He hung around for two weeks or so, but no others have shown up since.

Excellent calling pose, perch and BG. The yellows on these guys can be a nightmare, good job.

The head seems just a bit soft, perhaps from the 2X. A bit more shutter speed might have helped.

If you have the canvas, I could certainly see this as a vertical.

Thanks for sharing, good memories of following this guy around!

Cheers

Randy

[Rachel Hollander]

Andrew - nice calling pose and creamy bokeh. Good suggestions above for taking it to the next level.

TFS,
Rachel

[gail bisson]

The BG and singing pose are beautiful.
The bird is not sharp unfortunately. I hope you get a chance to go back and try again,
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the calling pose, BG, perch. If this is full-frame I really do wish you had flipped the camera to a vertical...if not then recropping as a vertical would be good (if you have more space above and below). Another thing to watch out for is blown highlights in the yellows...some desaturation would probably work there.

[Matthew Studebaker]

Again, Randy S read my mind and said it all. I could see more room above the bird, but wonderful image as-is. great pose, light, background.