Show your Bird Portraits

People are friendly, as you say, relaxed and easy to talk to.
I'm not a beer person, so your suggestion for tui beer is appreciated.
3:30 AM., tomorrow morning, I'll fly from Auckland to Christchurch begin the South Island's visit.
Hope you'll return the NZ soon.
-r

Tui's are awesome. Both the bird's and the beer. Well....especially the beer. Cheers, enjoy your holiday. NZ was one of my favorite countries to visit. Kiwi's are some of the world's friendliest people. Love to go back.
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Golden Whistler, female. Went to photograph a Pardalote or two, came back with a Golden Whistler. The Pardalotes had disappeared. Next time :)

Whistlers have a rather large, blocky head for their size, and a large eye. The scientific name for the genus, Pachycephala, means thick-head.

378A2037_Golden%2BWhistler.jpg
 
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Northbird said:
Cooper's Hawk juvenile shot with a 7D Mark II.

Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii)[/url] by Tony Varela Photography, on Flickr

Lovely and smooth background, Tony!
Certainly a fine looking juvenile, but I believe that dead branch show signs of having been used by numerous generations before it. It's beginning to be just as smooth as the background and all bark has been worn down.
 
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DiSnapper said:
Canon 7D with Canon 70-200 L 2.8 IS II USM+Canon 2X extender iii

Post processing: Contrast tweeking and selective sharpening. Canon DPP and GIMP

Black Necked Stork



IMG_4473 dss
by Ganugapenta NaveenKumar Reddy, on Flickr

Greater Crested Gerbe


IMG_6828 dss
by Ganugapenta NaveenKumar Reddy, on Flickr

Little Grebe


IMG_6557 dss
by Ganugapenta NaveenKumar Reddy, on Flickr

Common pochard female


IMG_6490 dss
by Ganugapenta NaveenKumar Reddy, on Flickr

Beautiful images, particularly of the stork.
 
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Greetings from NZ, (I'm visiting now, in South Island.)

A couple of photos from near Oamaru.

Yellow eyed penguin, a little bigger.
They return at dusk, the yellow ones come back earlier and get to the steep hillside in the bush, over 100 ft above the ocean.

The blue ones get home later, near darkness, onto stones by the beach. Here, people build small boxes for them to roost in. Pardon the focus on the blue, handheld on both, but it was darker and is somewhat harder to focus.
But these creatures, under two feet tall, are so cute.
-r
 

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GraFax said:
Mr Bean said:
Golden Whistler, female. Went to photograph a Pardalote or two, came back with a Golden Whistler. The Pardalotes had disappeared. Next time :)

Whistlers have a rather large, blocky head for their size, and a large eye. The scientific name for the genus, Pachycephala, means thick-head.

Nice photo. If I remember correctly the male Golden Whistlers are very lively singers. I had to google the Pardalotes. I don't recall seeing those.
Thanks GraFax. I didn't see (or hear) the male. A more colourful bird, compared to the female.
 
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Those of you who are long time regulars may remember me showing up on CR not quite 2 years ago after purchasing my 6D. I had shot one year with a Nikon D5100 and was really getting the bug. I felt insanely uneasy having just spent $7k on the 300 2.8 II.

Uneasiness is long gone and I don't have any regrets on my purchases for sure and am enjoying learning.
Yesterday, I decided to buy a 600 EX- RT but I haven't used flash for 20 years. I liked the idea of fill flash for wildlife and some of you have previously advised me in that direction. So, now I need to come up to speed and am reading and experimenting.

Being late November here in Alberta it gets pretty dark around 4 PM and to boot it's been cloudy. The result is that often I get shots from my observatory on the barn with natural light, at ISO 12800, which I don't really like. It's just occurring to me that to have fill flash you have to have good natural light in the first place.

Anyway, that's the background and here are shots at sundown, 6D 70-200 F2.8 II X1.4 (HSS) that I'd appreciate feedback on. Would these be considered acceptable or is the flash creating too much artificiality and if so any suggestions to correct that. I might be able to rig up some kind of reflector for bounce but being outdoors it's not that easy, not to mention winter winds and snow. Plain honest commentary is fine! :)

Jack
 

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