Sharp-shinned Hawk

Sorry I’ve been missing from Avian of late. We had to cancel our annual Prairie Appreciation Day this year and we decided to replace it with a year-long blog following the changes of the seasons and talking about various aspects of prairie ecology (similar to what we would do at the event). Since I do the website and am the photographer of the group, I’ve been doing a lot of the posts, and I can get most of the birds out of my files, so I’ve been doing a lot of flower photography.

However, this Sharpie has taken to visiting our bird feeders to see if it can nab a tasty Goldfinch (or anything else that might be careless). I think, based solely on it’s behavior patterns, that it’s the same one we had hanging out last fall as a fledgling, though it’s learned a lot of patience since then. It let me come out the back porch and move around the yard to get this shot.

PS. This post was interrupted because it was back, so I had to grab the camera and see what I could do.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Anything. No cloning on this. Just normal noise reduction, microcontrast and luminosity adjustments.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Anything. I had a looser horizontal crop, but decided I liked the portrait I cam up with for our bird records better.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

Sony a6500, FE200-600 @ 600 mm, hand held, f/8, 1/640, iso 1600, manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. Noise reduction with Neat Image, microcontrast adjustments to the bird and perch with Topaz Detail 3. Cropped to a 2520x3350 vertical from a horizontal original. Taken at 4:28 pm yesterday under overcast skies.

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3 Likes

Great pose and detail and a nice background. I like the perch. I could see a tad more room on the left for the hawk to look into and to de-center the hawk a bit. Nice capture and lucky to have such a cooperative hawk.

A beautiful shot, Dennis. Wow, to have one of these guys to come and pose right in your back yard, and to pose so nicely. Wonderful details in the bird and the nice perch, with a nice complimentary background. I like the composition too.

This is really nice. I can’t imagine having a pet sharpie in my backyard! IQ is fantastic, and the look back works great. BG is very complimentary. I’d probably crop up from the bottom just enough that the bottom of the fence row isn’t showing. Very glad to have you back!

I remember your sharpie (or was it a Cooper’s?) from last time, Dennis. This is such a great pose and you have an awesome background. I wish my backyard is like this during this quarantine. Alas, I live in a concrete jungle. I second Lyle’s suggestion about cropping just a touch from the bottom. I would definitely clone out the green triangle on the LRC if you decide to keep the bottom.

With his many birds as I have in my area, I surprised that I rarely see Sharp Shin Hawks. This is a very nice capture with amazing detail. Superb background. I agree with some of the cropping suggestions. I might also rotate it a tad bit clockwise to level the head if you’re going to cut off the bottom.