Cedar Waxwing

One of the few remaining in our area. They are still cleaning all the red berries from the Holly trees.

7D
100-400@400mm
f/6.3
1/80s
ISO 400

nice shot. I haven't seen any of these in a while here in Conway.

I had thought they were all gone north by now, but there is at least one flock remaining in South Arkansas.

Just curious: Do you think the flowers in the BG are too distracting?

they are pretty smooth so I am going to say no. They do add a bit of color that contrasts everything else in the scene. It looks like that lens does a nice job of smoothly blurring backgrounds, much better than my cheap sigma.

I'm envious. These are among my favorite birds and I don't have a single shot.

I don't mind the flowers. They add some nice color and don't absolutely overwhelm the waxwing. If you were gonna' reprocess this image at some point, perhaps darkening the ones closest to the bird a bit would be an arguable plus. But, I think it's pretty doggone good as is.

Nice shot Daniel. I think the BG is fine.

As much as I hate the push/pull design of the 100-400 Canon, it's is a wonderful lens for the price and great even on full-frames. I sold my 100-400mm and kept my Canon 300mm f/4 L IS, which is wonderful, but it's not handy like that zoom. If they made that more like the 70-200 and made it an f/4, the 100-400 would be the sweetest lens ever.

Aaron - my experience with the 100-400mm has been mixed. I've gotten great shots with it at times and at others been totally disappointed. It works best within the 20-50ft range. Beyond that it cannot resolve images with the clarity I expect from an L lens. The 500 f/4 on the other hand is a true gem. I will be getting it back later this week. It has been on loan since January.

Another view of the same Cedar Waxwing

Great shots Daniel! I love all the color in the background. It really helps to set of the Waxwing...

I like the second shot best.
Very nice work, as usual.
the fisch

I like both shots, I really like the pinks in the background. They are composed very nicely with the bird.

Both are wonderful shots. On the first one, I find the pink in the lower right a bit distracting, but the background is a big plus. On the second one, the leaves in the foreground are a bit distracting... maybe they could be darkened up a little? But those are nitpicks... you should be proud of both of these images.

Wonderful shots Daniel, if anything maybe just a little darkening of the brighter backgrounds. If you use photoshop you can select just those tones and tweak the brightness down just a bit would probably work great. But overall great job! These birds are so beautiful.

I spoke to soon, I saw about a dozen waxwings this afternoon.

Fine details and beautiful shots both. I can't wait to see some more of your work when you get that big gun back Daniel.