Tiny Speed Demon

Gallery: AvianPosted December 14, 2011162 views5 comments

This tiny 4 inch Ruby-crowned Kinglet and his cousin the Golden-crowned are a couple of the more challenging birds to capture. The challenges lie in their ceaseless energy, jumping from branch to branch while remaining on any one for just seconds. It's obvious to me that God created these little guys so that photographers and their cameras autofocus could get a great workout while chasing one. The other challenge is catching one in the open, devoid of branches and foliage clutter, their favorite habitat. Occasionally with several deletable attempts on your media card you get lucky and he may even have the colorful crown feathers showing.
Ridgefield Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, WA

canon 7D
canon 600mm f/4.L IS USM
F/6.3 1/100 ISO 800
auto window beanbag rest, CS5, LR3, Niks suite

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Scott Frye on December 14, 2011 at 5:56 AM

Prety bird and you got the ruby-crowned nicely. Thinking the slow shutter speed hurt you a bit on the bouncey trouncey little guy

Registered on February 3, 2007, 387 Posts, 1136 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on December 14, 2011 at 9:31 AM

Cute little guy - never easy to get the red crest. It could be sharper on the head but overall a good image

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on December 14, 2011 at 4:47 PM

Tough image to get for sure. A bit sharper on the head would have been nice, but I would take just seeing one.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on December 15, 2011 at 9:05 AM

Nice little head turn and good job getting the crown to show. I also enjoy the apparent frost on the perch. Agree that the face could be sharper.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on December 15, 2011 at 5:27 PM

I was just getting the same workout at Sweetwater last week on a Ruby-crowned Kinglet while my wife watched and had a good laugh. I like that you got the red crown and some catch light in the eye, the adventure continues, nice job getting this challenging bird.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments