Show your Bird Portraits

[ISv]

A few martins collecting nesting material earlier this year. Had to lay in the mud to get these but got lucky when they came very close.

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I think you got what you pay for (and looking at the photos you got them on reasonable price!
Your luck was mostly on the last shot - did you track it coming to you from some distance? If not - that's a lot of luck! And if it was actually taking off - I don't know what to say...

 

[ISv]

Thanks! For some reason my 'story' didn't get included...I started bird photography as hobby in January this year ( because of covid restricting my usual travel photogrpahy) and my goto place for birds apart from my garden is the Rietvlei Nature Reserve 10min drive from my home...there are more than 200 species to be found there plus some animals like rhino, eland, cheetah, zebra etc.

"Rietvlei Nature Reserve 10min drive from my home."
You are just in the spot for plenty of photos!
Please, make more photos of the Greater Striped Swallow - you posted one on page 1235 - such a beautiful bird!

 

[ERHP]

Spent about two hours sitting with this female Northern Harrier. Just before the sun set she did some stretching.

R5 600 II w/1.4X 1/200 : f/9 : ISO 800

 

[Distinctly Average]

I think you got what you pay for (and looking at the photos you got them on reasonable price!
Your luck was mostly on the last shot - did you track it coming to you from some distance? If not - that's a lot of luck! And if it was actually taking off - I don't know what to say...

Thanks. It was taking off. I got used to focusing a little to the front then hitting the shutter as they took flight.

 

[Click]

Great shot, ERHP!

 

[usern4cr]

Spent about two hours sitting with this female Northern Harrier. Just before the sun set she did some stretching.

R5 600 II w/1.4X 1/200 : f/9 : ISO 800

The lighting on this is great, EHRP!

 

[AlanF]

I gave my wife the R6 + RF 100-400mm today, and she loves them. Here are a couple of her first shots: a Mute Swan Cygnet close up, and a Mute Swan flying at the very far side of the lake, just occupying a few pixels.

 

[Click]

Two very nice shots. Well done, Alan.

 

[AlanF]

Two very nice shots. Well done, Alan.

It's well done my wife. I quickly showed her the two back focus buttons and set up the C1, C2 and C3 modes for different exposure situations and she immediately took to it. I am really impressed by the R6, and this 100-400 delivers the goods.

 

[Click]

I apologize to your wife. Well done, Mrs Alan.

 

[ISv]

My only birds for the weekend - bunch of Red-vented Bulbuls feeding on the fruits of (still unknown for me) tree - I'm working on this...
Edited: the tree looks like something from Sapindaceae but I can't get any further.

 

[Click]

Very nice series, ISv. I especially like the 3rd picture.

 

[AlanF]

Some more outings with the RF 100-400mm on the R6, this time with the RF 1.4xTC at 560mm f/11. These are more shots from my wife. I took identical shots standing next to her with the RF 100-500mm on the R5 at 500mm f/7.1. The quality of the two combos is indistinguishable. Here is a variety of 100% crops, varying from extreme cropping to closer. 1 pixel here is 1 pixel of the original.

 

[Click]

Very nice shots. I especially like the first one.

 

[AlanF]

The previous post was to show that the el cheapo lens delivers the goods with a TC on the low resolution body. And now for something that looks garbage but is in fact bloody marvellous. I glimpsed through a double-glazed window at dusk with considerable cloud, a Great Spotted Woodpecker on our feeder, 15m away. I grabbed the R6+1.4xTC+RF 100-400mm, and took a quick hand-held shot at 1/100s. Auto iso jumped to 25,600! This is a crop where the bird occupies only 800x400px. I am blown over by what this gear can do.

 

[dcm]

The previous post was to show that the el cheapo lens delivers the goods with a TC on the low resolution body. And now for something that looks garbage but is in fact bloody marvellous. I glimpsed through a double-glazed window at dusk with considerable cloud, a Greater Spotted Woodpecker on our feeder, 15m away. I grabbed the R6+1.4xTC+RF 100-400mm, and took a quick hand-held shot at 1/100s. Auto iso jumped to 25,600! This is a crop where the bird occupies only 800x400px. I am blown over by what this gear can do.

Still consider it "el cheapo" (something that is inexpensive and typically of inferior quality)?

Haven't tried the RF 1.4x extender on the RF 100-400 yet, but it does well on the RF 800.

 

[AlanF]

Still consider it "el cheapo" (something that is inexpensive and typically of inferior quality)?

Haven't tried the RF 1.4x extender on the RF 100-400 yet, but it does well on the RF 800.

Cheap and good not cheap and nasty!

 

[josephandrews222]

Yellow-Rumped Warbler:

...and: do the facts presented in the linked article below match up with the observations of those who post here?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/11/28/bird-feeder-pecking-order/

 

[jjbernali]

Hello to all. this is my first post I've been reading this forum and looking at your delighfull pictures for a while. I'm from Colombia and wanted to start sharing some of my bird pictures.

Lesbia victoriae (Black-tailed Trainbearer)

Grallaria quitensis (Tawny Antpitta)

Zonotrichia capensis (Rufous-collared Sparrow) quite common in south america and an iconic bird of my city

 

[Click]

Very nice pictures, jjbernali.

Welcome to CR.