This is the world's only alpine parrot. The species is endemic to New Zealand and - like many of the country's birds - rapidly declining. The are quite intelligent
and mischievous, and they will often land on cars to play with antenna and roof racks.
I know this frame is FAR from perfect. It would not have been kept were it of any other bird, but this was a really desired species on my trip (life bird #2,070). Sadly, I can't just walk down to the local pond and try again on this one! Overhead and diffuse, the lighting SUCKED on my only day in appropriate habitat, and I have done quite bit of local exposure control on the head to get it where it is now. I also applied more sharpening than usual, and I performed selective NR on the background. It just felt I had to push the sliders around a lot on this one.
So, given all that, I am curious what people think. A decent salvage or total rubbish?
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 1DX Mark II
1/1250 at f/5.6, ISO 1600
Cheers,
Dorian