Male Prothonotary

Joe, I agree w/ you the reflective white area in the BG could be evicted. I like the giant bunch of nesting material that this little guy has in it's mouth. Beautiful details and I do wish the eye were more visible-but I love this image and would be very happy to have it in my files. Maybe some NR in BG.

Neat shot! Love the mossy perch and setting, as well as the bird. Given what the shot is trying to show, with the nesting material, I don't mind the face/eye not being visible. Do wish for a tad more DOF though.

Nice, Joe I really like the behavior and the eye peeking through the moss. The water doesn't distract much. I'm not sure, but to my eye it looks as if you might have just a touch too much sharpening. You don't mention a crop, but this is a bit tight and centered composition wise. Still a real beauty.

I like the capture a lot Joe and the detail is excellent. It would take a little work but cloning that water out would certainly be worth the effort IMO. In every other respect you've got a very nice behavioral shot.

Pat

Now that's a mouthful. Beautifully captured.
May

I was at Magee last week as well and the prothonotaries sure seemed content to put on a show within perfect view of the boardwalk. My images had the same challenges you mention here.. contrasty, bright, distracting BGs & more noise than I'd like due to the high ISO required to get enough SS on the heavy overcast days we experienced. You made the most of what you had to work with. The bird & nesting materials look good. I wouldn't take the time to clone the BG either, just try em again another day in another situation.

What a gorgeous bird hiding behind that nesting material. Love the colors and really good feather details. An intriguing shot.

Joe:
I like the behavioral aspect (gathering nest material) and the obscured parts of the head is a natural consequence of having a beak full of moss! Excellent detail. Good work getting the warbler in the open.

Joe,

The brighter water in the background isn't that much a of a distraction to me, though I do think it could be toned down some to minimize its impact.

I like the glob of nesting material in the bill and appreciate that you were able to get the eye to show through it and with that big clump of moss it must have been challenging.

The bird appears to be a touch oversharpened to my eye, some of the feathers have that crispy look to them.

Do you selectively sharpen the bird, or sharpen the entire image? I would highly suggest selectively sharpening because when backgrounds are sharpened it increases any noise that might be present. Richard Ditch has some great tutorials about sharpening on his site you might like to check out, and Jim DeWitt wrote an article about sharpening for NPN too.

I can't say it any better than Mia did.

I love that mouthful and the eye showing through it all makes it work very well for me Joe. If it were mine I wouldn't even consider cloning the bright water out though I might consider toning it down if possible. Pretty difficult to get a sharp focus on the eye with all the nesting material in front of it.