Post your best bird shots!

[Raid]

Dave, it was a male house sparrow, like the one that visited my garden last weekend.

Male House Sparrow by Andrew Stringer, on Flickr
1D Mark IV, EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM +1.4x @560mm, f/8, 1/320s, ISO 640

It's similar to the less common tree sparrow, but the tree sparrow has a black patch on its cheeks.

Here's another garden visitor, often mistaken for a female sparrow but the narrower beak tells me that this is a dunnock.

Dunnock by Andrew Stringer, on Flickr
1D Mark IV, EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM +1.4x @560mm, f/8, 1/250s, ISO 200

Andrew

The background effect in your photos is very interesting, any idea how its created?

Tony

[Andy Stringer]

The background effect in your photos is very interesting, any idea how its created?

It wasn't really created, that's just what you get using that lens with extender at f/8 on a subject 10 metres away with a background about 11-12 metres away, then cropping to nearly 100%. I'm not sure I really like the effect, especially when compared to some of Joel's smooth backgrounds, but I don't have photoshop, nor the time to learn it.

I really need the birds to come closer to isolate them from the background, or wait for the 500mm L II to arrive so I can take these shots at f/4 instead.

[Joel Eade]

It wasn't really created, that's just what you get using that lens with extender at f/8 on a subject 10 metres away with a background about 11-12 metres away, then cropping to nearly 100%. I'm not sure I really like the effect, especially when compared to some of Joel's smooth backgrounds, but I don't have photoshop, nor the time to learn it.

I really need the birds to come closer to isolate them from the background, or wait for the 500mm L II to arrive so I can take these shots at f/4 instead.

I think you're correct Andy ... just too much depth of field and not enough bokeh combined with some noise as well...and all of that compounded by a large crop.

I think your correction is right too...try to get the birds farther from the BG and use a wider aperture. I don't know what software you have but it isn't too hard to smooth some of it in post processing.