Or, an immature male. They are virtually identical until the male begins to molt into his very colorful breeding plumage. She is beautiful, too - the only lime green songbird I know of that visits North America.
Any
Is this a composite: No
Canon60D, Canon 70-300mm IS USM @260mm, f/5.6. 1/2000 sec., ISO 1600, Hand Held. Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure, sharpness, and cropping. Topaz De-noise applied.
I never knew the female was this color-you virtually never see an image of her. This is sweet. It looks like the focus might have been off a bit as the larger image is rather soft, but the subject matter and pose make up for it in my book. Do the juvenile males take more than the next spring to get their adult plumage?
Thanks, Dennis. Yeah, I knew it wasn’t the sharpest of photos, but I liked the pose, too. She/he was further from me than I would have liked, and I had very little light. I’ve included another photo that is sharper, but I don’t like the pose as well. The males attain their full plumage in their second year but, unlike many migrant birds, they molt on their way back to their winter territories.
And yet another bird I have not seem. I actually like the facial"softness", looks like some fine brush strokes from a master hand. The purple background is a bit different and works pretty well, except on the branch left of the subject. Wonderful image Terry.
You got a gorgeous pose of a lovely bird. You may be limited by the IQ, but I wonder if there is a better balance between the NR, which has rendered some areas too smooth, and sharpening, which has left some details too sharp.
There are strange vertical areas against the right and left edges, sort of like a frame on 2 sides. The unusual patterns in the pink areas might be smoothed out.
Technical issues aside, you got a nice pose and head turn. I like the diagonal branch. The green plumage really shows well in this image.
Thanks @Stephen_Stanton @Diane_Miller @David_Schoen. I’m glad you all like the bird and the pose. Those reasons are why I posted this image. I will try reprocessing it, but don’t know that I can improve it much, if any. I knew it was going to be problematic from the start.
