When we were in Costa Rica, our guide kept taking us to places where local residents were creating birding setups. This was taken at one near the Laguna de Lagarto Lodge. This is the male. The female is lime green.
Anything.
Sony A1, FE 200-600 + 1.4 TC @ 840 mm, monopod with Wimberley Sidekick mount, f/9, 1/1250, iso 2000, manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. Cropped to 3546x4362. Taken at 8:57 AM on April 20th.
A beautiful bird on an awesome perch and a great background. Techs are terrific. What more could one ask for? Well done.
Great colors and feather detail. Interesting pose; good perch and background.
Engaging and quirky. I love the head on look because it’s different from our usual bird portraits. The colors look terrific. Such a vivid plumage. The selfish gene indeed. I’d be tempted to clone out the bit of stuff hanging from the lower branch. I think it’s moss and it’s rather dark so it could go if you have a mind to do it.
So from your description it seems a cottage industry exists around the lodges and photography tours to set up for you. Do you know if people are paid for this or if they just benefit indirectly by having more visitors in the area?
@Kris_Smith The people are all paid. I wasn’t made aware of how much, as the guide took care of it. At this particular place, most of the photography was done from a front porch that had been repurposed as a semi-blind. The woman who ran the house kept busy with her chores, but her son who seemed to be around 10-12 was actively looking for things for us to see and spotted several birds away from the porch and down by a creek. When we left, we left a tip for the woman and a separate one for the kid. He looked to be turning into a real birder and our guide mentioned that he had asked him in the past about how to become a guide.
That’s encouraging. Thanks for the info. I’ve never done a tour like this and am often sort of hesitant because of the possible exploitation aspect; of the wildlife and the people, but this encourages me a bit.
HI Dennis
I looks like Costa Rica is the place to go for really great looking bird. Love the head tilt.
Peter
