Lower Falls Heron + Repost

Craig:

I'm not quite sure what it is either.  The shape is certainly that of a Great Blue, but I've never seen one that color.  Maybe one of the better bird ID folks can help.  Maybe a juvenile?

Image:  Interesting setting.  I find the luminance of the bird and background merge.  I played with it just a bit and added a bit of luminance to the bird and that helped.  

You have an immature great blue heron.  They have a grey cap and more striped throat and belly. His coloration really blends with the rocks.

I find the image interesting from a standpoint of shape and texture.  The foreground and background textures run horizontally will the bird is vertical with diagonal textures of the plumage.  But there are contrast issues which might be solved by playing with some luminosity masks.  And you can always enter it in the weekly challenge this week which is camouflage.  With respect to the oddity of the plumage, I will say that I have never seen an immature great blue Heron look like this which I find surprising because I live within half a mile of a rookery that is home to between 20 and 30 herons.

Hi Craig, Julia is correct, it is a young GBH. I do like the image, but it appears a tad underexposed to me. I might raise the exposure overall a touch. I am alos wondering how this might look as a 4x5 vertical instead of a 2x3 with the top being what gets cropped out? Either way I think the comp still works fine.

This is a cool image, Craig.  I agree with the processing suggestions that others have made as more separation from the bg would help.  I also like Kurt's idea of a crop from the top as the two layer rock formation up there really draws my eye.

Thanks all for the comments, and for the ID. I had tried to lighten the bird to make him stand out, but obviously didn't go far enough. Here's another rendition with further luminosity work as noted by all, and a crop as suggested by Kurt & Dennis.