Jangling keys

No not Spanish time share owners jumping of cliffs, or even corn buntings, but male serins. The breeding males really are quite handsome.

These birds are locally common in the Alicante region as there are big tracts of the scrub pine left on the coastline dune regions and municipal parks. Always to be found at the top of the trees singing their hearts out,and as a result the shooting angle is a bit high. Next year I will take a big bag of seed to see if I can tempt some down a bit more.

Oly E-3, 300mm plus 1.4 tc plus cropped for composition.

and the "purists" version with dead pine habitat cloned out

Real twitcher's material if it were in this country

Nice shot Mike.



Paul

...............nice shot. There is a possibility that they have started to breed near my location......that's the rumour anyway....

Really like this one Mike, prefer the first version, also the title made me smile, yesterday morning a mate of mine was trying to explain how the corn buntings call sounded like a bunch a jangling keys, top shot of a very difficult species.

Andy...

A beautiful image Mike, love the bright catchlight in the eye. Super sky colour to compliment the bird. I prefer the first image, as it appears more natural somehow. Nice one.

Thanks for your help too btw.

Fran

Hi Mike,

Despite the often difficult to work with harsh, Spanish light I guess one bonus is the frequency of those rich, blue skies, which, in this instance, works superbly against the yellow plumage. A winning combination of colour.

either version floats my boat . I do like the rich blue sky as a back drop .