Yellow hammer + re post

Late afternoon light. I think in this case the "messy" background is indicative of the birds hedgerow type haunts.
D200 Sigma 50-500
400Iso 120th @f8
Camera contrast down one
Resize and crop in Paint Shop pro.
Gamma dropped a tad.
Cheers
JohnR

Lovely shot. Background habitat is fine by me.

A lovely shot with a great light on the head. The b/g is not distracting at all, and shows it's natural environment well.

Fran

Thanks both.
JohnR

very nice image, the light is lovely and the setting is fine

a few "photoshop marks" you might want to sort though, a vertical line running down the frame in front of the bird (you can see it where it crosses the twigs), there's also a bit of one underneath the bird

Thanks
Got it Jack.
Looks like the whole right got selected and moved out of line.
Wierd. Tried selecting it and re aligning but too messy so cloned it
This whole computers being doing funny things lately especially with selections. It sometimes creates a dark line around one and then moves it slightly when I click . Maybe the mouse .I must stop using windows 98
Its not photoshop by the way - haven't got it.
Cheers
JohnR

Beautiful shot! Lovely colours and pose. I really like the ''messy'' background - it gives an excellent feeling of habitat, but is ''un-messy'' enough to still show the bird off fully.

Very nice!

Yes, the background suits the species. A superb shot of one of my favourite birds.

David

Bg is just right in this shot IMO, John. Not sterile and not interfering with the subject. Just how I like them.
Eric

the bg colours really complement the bird and the lighting is great. A lovely shot.

Matt

Nice one John.