Crested Caracara

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image on a Crested Caracara perched on a freeze damaged Orange tree along 10 Mile Grade Road in Zolfo Springs, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 500mm F/5.6 VR AF-S ED PF, Handheld
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +1/3 ISO 400 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 500mm (750mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2021 and Neat Image for noise reduction when needed
Cropped for composition and presentation

[William Dickson]

Looks good here Joe....Nice pose with those talons gripping the tree...Good detail on the bird and perfect HA....The busy perch don't bother me, it adds to the scene...Good crop...Well done

Will

[Jonathan Ashton]

Loving the colours, good clear view of the bird, details excellent. As Will mentioned the talons are a strong feature in the image and they look impressive. I like it.

[Brian Sump]

Joe, nicely processed subject in this one.

Great details as shown. Nice pose just toward the lens from parallel. Nice, even light is great.

At first I didn't think I'd like all the business going on below but I think it works okay because the subject rises above so well. I might opt to trade some from the bottom for a touch more on top.

Curious, what is the thin dark strip at the below the beak just up from the chest? Appears maybe a slight masking remnant or something?

Side note, really like that remaining orange on the left of the frame. The round shape actually balances and sort of offsets all the twigs.

[Arthur Morris]

DATPCA. I removed the only branch that really bugged me.

with love, artie

[Joseph Przybyla]

Joe, nicely processed subject in this one.

Great details as shown. Nice pose just toward the lens from parallel. Nice, even light is great.

At first I didn't think I'd like all the business going on below but I think it works okay because the subject rises above so well. I might opt to trade some from the bottom for a touch more on top.

Curious, what is the thin dark strip at the below the beak just up from the chest? Appears maybe a slight masking remnant or something?

Side note, really like that remaining orange on the left of the frame. The round shape actually balances and sort of offsets all the twigs.

Hi Brian, thank you for viewing and commenting. What you see near the white neck feathers is sloppy post processing. I applied and mask to lower the highlights on those feathers and neglected to clean up the mask outside the feathers. It is fixed now and I also removed the branch as Artie showed in his edit. Thanks again, here's a repost correcting what was mentioned.