Purple Gallinule

It's tight in the frame but that is the only shot I had. It's full frame from top to bottom and on the left side. I had to crop a tad from the right side because of some ugliness in that area. No way to add canvas with this environment. It requires a very special light to get good details across this multi-colored bird. I have many images of this species but this is my favorite. Where I shoot there are only 1 or 2 nesting pairs each year and they don't often come out in the open. This image taken in prime mating plumage. By late summer these guys look fairly beatup and not near as perfect as this one.
As usual, from truck window with bean bag and natural diffused mid-morning light at 10:25am. Processed in Nikon Capture NX and Photoshop CS.


Model NIKON D200
Flash Used No
Focal Length 400 mm (Nikon 400mm f/2.8d AF-I
Exposure Time 1/640 sec
Aperture f/4.5
ISO Equivalent 250
Exposure Bias -2/3
White Balance Manual Daylight
Metering Mode matrix
Raw
Exposure Program aperture priority