European stonechat (Saxicola rubicola), perched on a branch + rework

Since a few weeks they are back, in spite of the cold weather. Taken from a comfortable mobile hide: my car. Like lions in Africa, birds don’t seem to recognize people when in a car.

Specific Feedback Requested

All comments are welcome.

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Pentax K5, Sigma APO EX DG 4/100-300mm with TC2 @300mm, f/4.5, 1/500s, ISO400.

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Hi Han, nice pose you caught - I like the head turn and catchlight. I’m not familiar with this species but exposure for the most part looks good to me - you may want to take down some of the brightest whites on the bird’s collar. Even with the branches throughout the frame, the bird is fairly well isolated to give us a good look.

Nice image, bird looks tack sharp and well-exposed ! Only nit would be that the bird is looking out of the frame, would probably have been even nicer if the bird would have had some more space to look into. Other than that a fine one ! Cheers, Hans


As others have said, really nice pose and head turn. The image has superb detail and color. I hope you don’t mind but I did some editing, with a little cloning and adding some canvas.

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Thank you all @Allen_Sparks , @Hans_Overduin and @David_Schoen. And I don’t mind at all, @David_Schoen, that you did some editing. I always appreciate a lot that members are taking time to comment on an image.
To the left of the bird are more branches, that’s why I cropped the original image the way I did. I agree, that more space at the left side, where the bird is looking at, would be better. That’s what David did, he more or less moved the bird from a position at 1/3 of the left edge to 1/3 of the right edge of the frame. That is the part of the editing that I like. What I like less is, that in my view the branch is now more or less suspended in the air.
As a compromise, I can upload an image with the bird looking to the right :slightly_smiling_face:
But I prefer this one with the head turn. So I started from scratch and now post this rework.
Curious to read if you like it (or not), if you find the extra branch distracting.

Well , Han, ideally it wouldn’t have the branch on the left, but it was there :wink: … Should I have to choose I would go for this one, the re-post. And I agree that the head turn is definitely nice to keep ! Cheers, Hans