Another endangered endemic species in Hakalau NWR.
Iso 4000, 100 to 400 plus 1.4x, f8, 1250th, A7R4, no flash, handheld, 25% full frame, laptop processed
With respect to the extinction of endemic species in Hawaii, most bird death is the result of an avain strain of malaria. A single mosquito bite is fatal within 2-3 weeks. The birds have no natural defense against the avian malaria. Currently, most of the birds live in the upper cooler areas of the Hakalau forest and the mosquitos live in the warmer and lower areas of that forest. As a result of global warming, the range of the mosquitos is increasing upward, affecting the range of the endemic birds.
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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That is so sad to hear that the global warming is causing the deaths of these little birds that are already endangered. I am so glad you were able to capture this little guy. Love his perch. The background seems a bit noisy. Maybe you are working from a laptop and not able to do your usual noise reduction that you do so well. Not sure what ISO you were at. Still a great look at this cute little guy in his natural environment.
A new bird to me. I really like the specular highlights in the BG as it seems to echo the shape of the bird really well. I do think the triangular area on the LL corner can be mitigated somewhat if not eliminated completely. There is a green tint in the image, David, perhaps from all those filtered light through the moss.
David: A cool bird to get in the viewfinder. I do like the brighter version better. The green cast is still evident and maybe should be there, I don’t know the situation. But… to remove it I did the following: Duplicate the Background layer, they applied Filter / Blur / Average, then applied a curves adjustment layer and used the middle gray eyedropper on the blurred layer. Then delete the blurred layer. That corrects most color casts. Sometimes it goes too far, but in this case, this result is at 100% opacity for the curves adjustment layer.
Thanks Keith! I really appreciate your help on this one. Your improvement makes it considerably better. I have several other images where this tip could come in real useful.
