Evolution at Work

Gallery: AvianPosted February 10, 2012205 views3 comments

Hi all,
This is a Northern Flicker, as most of you know, taken in my back yard, but curiously this gent,I think,is a mix of both the Eastern yellow shafted and the Western red shafted varieties. I thought it was an interesting and rare find. The yellow shafted version has the red patch at the nape with black mustache and the red shafted has the red mustache and no red patch at the nape. His wings are of the red shafted variety. Please correct me if I'm wrong in assuming this is a blend and evolution at work.

Really can't remember my settings and this one was already cropped and processed in my archives. I'm sure it was my D300 with 80-400mm F4.5-5.6 @400mm and possibly F6.3 or 7.1, hand held possibly at about 1/600-1/1000 sec. Think I probably cropped it down about 50%, but I'm guessing. Sorry for the vague info, but I really just wanted to post this for the curiosity factor not really for critique. Although, critique is certainly welcome. Thanks for looking!

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on February 11, 2012 at 9:29 AM

neat to see this intergrade variation, Debbie. comp-wise, I'd prefer less on the bottom and more room to the right. It looks like the red malar (moustache) stripe doesn't extend as far as it usually does, either.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on February 11, 2012 at 9:35 AM

Nice capture of this hybrid of the two subspecies. The out of focus blob on the left is a slight distraction. I agree with Brian that a bit less room at the bottom and a bit more room on the right for the bird to "look" into would improve the shot.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Debbie Yarra on February 11, 2012 at 10:03 AM

Brian and Jim I totally agree with you both on the comp and the branch blur on the left. Don't think I can get out the blur, but I'm going to change the comp. It's amazing how much I've grown and see differently since I've joined NPN. I think I processed this about 2 years ago and when I found it I thought immediately, I need to find the original and crop it differently. Anyway, I never realized he was different until I noticed him the other day in the back yard with some other males, so I grabbed this picture to ask about it. Felt like Audubon might call me

, until my hopes of fame were dashed by Jim, who very politely and informatively, told me that this is common for certain areas and old news

. Oh well I still think it's cool!

For this great information see the bird photography discussion under forums. Thanks guys

Registered on January 1, 2012, 5 Posts, 91 Comments