Skylark

Eurasian Skylarks are in decline, a drop of 60% over the last 25 years. That said, there’s some area where you still hear them sing: the soundtrack of Spring. High-up in the air, they do their songs, and after that parachute down towards the ground. Sometimes there are so high-up you can hardly see them, but will always hear them :wink: … This one was on its way down, and for a moment I expected it to fall into my lens hood :wink: … But it landed safely. Thanks for viewing, cheers, Hans

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Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Nikon D500 with 500mm f4 | 1/2000s | f5 | ISO 800 | Overexposed 2FS | handheld

1 Like

Songbirds are taking a beating the world over I think. This is a great catch. Such delicate shading in the feathers that I bet only shows up with an up-from-under view. The eyes look sharp - and you have both of them showing - incredible. Other than maybe placing the bird in the opposite corner of the frame, I can’t think of a thing to improve this. The open beak! I can almost hear it, too.

Hi Hans, wonderful in flight pose you captured. Love the spread wings and open beak. Interesting high key look. Agree that the bird could be more right in the frame with room to fly into.

From your description, I am sorry that I have never heard one sing! Incredible capture, but I too would move the bird towards the lower tight corner to give it someplace to go. Open mouth is wonderful too.

Thanks @_Kris , @Allen_Sparks and @Anita_B - for your suggestion about placing the bird in the frame. Thing is that these birds parachute downwards (so in this image it was coming closer) and it’s direction was from upper left to lower right, so for the me the logical way was to place it where it is. I never thought of how it may look for someone that wasn’t there :joy: … from your perspective it may look odd indeed - I will have to make two versions then I guess :blush: Thanks ! Hans

Impressive color and detail. I really like the body position of the Skylark. The head turn and two eyes with the open-mouth are fantastic. I don’t have any problem with the position of the bird in the frame.

Excellent image, Hans. I love the flight pose and head turn. With that background you can move the bird anywhere it looks good to the viewer.

Hi Hans,

As Always, you capture some gems with your camera. The centered subject is fine where it is positioned in the frame. Sometimes going against convention works even better than the norm. Awesome photo…Jim