Show your Bird Portraits

Today because of the forecast I went to botanical garden (in case of rain you have a shelter).
I always was thinking these parakeets are eating the entire seed pod. Today this smarty told me "No, dummy, we are doing it different way" and show me the process... Note that it did open the pod exactly where the bigger seeds start! The rest is just discarded.

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Lovely series!
 
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I've wanted to see a Firecrest for a very long time. Just seen my very first one. It was there for just a few seconds and I had to shoot before adjusting settings. These are tiny crops from the centre at iso 51200, denoised as standard in DxO followed by a run through Topaz. Terrible shots but great for me for the record.

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I've wanted to see a Firecrest for a very long time. Just seen my very first one. It was there for just a few seconds and I had to shoot before adjusting settings. These are tiny crops from the centre at iso 51200, denoised as standard in DxO followed by a run through Topaz. Terrible shots but great for me for the record.

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Lucky you! I still have no photo of the Firecrest. Goldcrest - yes (few miserable photos...).
 
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Tried today to find again the Orange-cheeked Waxbill. The grass was still wet and there were no birds feeding there. Later small flock (~10 birds) of Common Waxbill came but my target wasn't there: I always have seen it in bigger flocks (like ~40-60 birds). Took bunch of photos of two subadulds Saffron finch in different stages of transition to adult plumage. The second photo is a crop 1580x1579 pixels. Park in Waikiki and the birds are customized to people. I crawl back and they follow me :LOL:!!!


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I went back to the same spot as I saw a Firecrest yesterday, this time armed with the RF 100-500mm as the conditions were so dire between showers. Got in just one shot as a bird briefly appeared for about 20 seconds. And, when I looked at the image - a Goldcrest. (1/200s at iso 40,000), I am tempted to buy a used 400mm f/4 DO ii for these conditions, but it would rarely be used and still cost about £3500).

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