Stork-billed Kingfisher

Manoj: I've never seen one of these Kingfishers. I can't comment on the color accuracy for sure, but it looks to be a bit over saturated as the greens in the background feel unnatural. The biggest issue with the image is the noise. There is a LOT of noise in the entire image. At ISO 800, I would not have expected that level. Was this underexposed and then brought up in post processing?

Manoj, I like the pose you caught this kingfisher in and the composition of the image. It does look noisy and abit soft. My guess is your light situation was poor, if that was the case you did very well to get this good of an image. Thanks for sharing.

My word, that is a bill on the little guy, isn't it? The noise levels seem far higher than I would expect for ISO800 and the Sony A700. A post processing artifact, perhaps? The A700 has a "vivid" color setting; if you have that on, considering turning it off. The colors are just a little to strong.

Strange large beak and small feet. Focus seems to be around feet area. Nice share.

Wow, what a bird.... love the pose..... .

I agree with the previous critiques Manoj. If this is a large crop I would back off a little, it will help with some of the technical issues possibly and imho could use a bit more space esthetically.

Thanks for sharing your views on this image.
John, your guess is correct, this image was taken under very low light and also hand held sitting on a driver’s seat. I was able to take only one image and the bird flew away.
As I am not happy with the overall appearance, I applied auto contrast option in photoshop and then change the green colour a bit with selective colour option. I can now see that I could have done a better job in photoshop. No Cropping applied.
About the bird, Stork-billed Kingfisher is the largest kingfisher in Sri Lanka (There are six species of kingfishers in the Island). The size is around 40cm and common bird near riverside habitats.
Jim, I always shoot in ‘Standard’ colour setting in my A700. Is that the best option for most situations?
Again, thanks all for your comments.
Cheers
Manoj

I agree with what other's have stated about this image Manoj. A really cool bird for sure. I would reprocess this taking into account the advice provided.

Beautiful bird, Manoj. It's a bit tight in the frame. If you cropped it, I think I'd back off a little to give the bird some room. Also a bit more room on the left would be nice to give the bird room to move into. The exposure looks excellent. The bird looks a little soft in the larger image. Were you using a tripod or hand holding? 1/40 second would be very difficult to and hold.

Manoj the nits have been covered but that is one very handsome bird very well caught.

Keith.