I had been some years since I last shot these wonderful birds. The are year round in our country, but can best be seen in winter. In summer they feed on insects, and are mainly low in the reeds close to the water. In winter though they switch their eating pattern to seeds, which they get from the reed plumes. And then they are high up, showing themselves m much better. This is a see-through between waving plumes … Thanks for any feedback, Hans
p.s. for more images of this bird, you can take a look at my blog: https://www.hansoverduin.nl/return-to-the-reedling/
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D500 with 500mm f4 | 1/1250s | f5 | ISO1250 | overexposed 1FS | monopod
What a treat to see another bird I’ve never seen before. I can see how they would be hard to find in summer if they stay low down. The plants grow so thick. This one looks terrific and I love how its right in mid bite so to speak. Great grippy feet, too and the softness of the reeds is heavenly. It hardly seems like winter, at least not the winter I’m used to.
This is a beautiful image Hans. I love the colors and lighting, and the see-through technique provides a nice very nice softness for the background while giving enough depth for your main subject. It also gives a good view of the Reedlings habitat. A very minor nit but I suggest softening/blurring the partial seed plume on the left edge and possibly clone out the stick in the upper right corner.
Also, your blog post on this beautiful bird is fantastic!
Beautiful look at the bird. Great light and I like the softness of the background. I like the pose and how the bird is framed by the reeds. Another great shot!
This is really nice and a very different bird from what we see in North America. This is a new species for me. Excellent depth of field and exposure. I hope you don’t mind but I did see an alternative crop that really emphasizes the bird. I did this because of its rarity.
Thanks for your comments & suggestions. @Kris_Smith winters here are usually mild, occasionally some snow but not this year @Steve_Kennedy thanks for your suggestions, I thought about the stick but decided against it since the plume has to come from somewhere (was my initial reasoning) - but maybe indeed, the image could do very well without. @Allen_Brooks , @Jim_Gavin ; thanks! @David_Schoen very good choice of framing - to me the bird is not really rare, I just didn’t spend energy on it the last years, and I do have plenty of close-up shots, therefore as you can see in my blog I also chose for some shots with more surroundings. That all said, your choice of crop is definitely an excellent alternative and shows the bird nicely framed with the reed plumes
A great image of this beautiful bird, Hans. As you say, the bird isn’t really rare, but restricted to a certain habitat and in my region I wouldn’t know where to find any (there are no large reed beds).
Very nice background as well, and I like both the posted image and the crop suggested by @David_Schoen .
A beautiful shot of a beautifully different bird, rare or not for your area, Hans. I did think there was too much negative space on the left side of the image so the @David_Schoen crop works a little better, although it might be too tight of an image as cropped.
This is spectacular Hans. Excellent detail on the bird and the plume it’s hanging on to. Obviously, the OOF plumes are what makes this image so intriguing. The fact that the birds colors are mirroring the color of the plumes makes the environment of this shot as critical as the bird itself. I love that you can see the legs and that the head angle is spot on. This is just tremendous Hans. I have recently gotten back into bird photography and it’s images like that drove me back to it.
Hello, Glenys, thanks ! I’m afraid I cannot tell you why I chose this image - could have been one from the post as well for that matter. All are different and have a certain appeal to me. This one wasn’t in the blog post - but no deeper thoughts behind it. As I don’t want to upload too much of one series here, I usually refer to my blog post for those that would like to see more… Cheers, Hans
Hi Hans
Thank you for sharing the Bearded Reedling, everything about this framing beings my to the Bearded Reedling. The open framing really work here.
Peter
