Photo of the d/a/y/ week?

[johnridley]

A couple of weeks ago I thought it would be a good exercise for me to try to take at least one photo worth sharing per day. At this point, I think maybe one per week would be a more achievable goal.

I scored an incredible find earlier this week; I found a like-new Sigma 170-500mm lens on a Canon mount at a rummage sale, and got it for $250. Today I went out and managed to keep the dog inside long enough for the birds to come back to the feeders and took a few shots. I thought it was back focusing a bit but I think it's just that at 500mm it's very difficult to get the camera to focus on the bird and not a leaf 6 inches behind it (and at 500mm, 6 inches is outside of DOF).

Anyway, I'm not certain of the identification, this may be a juvenile of some kind, but for now I think this is a female cowbird. Taken from about 60 feet away, cropped down a bit. This is a 100% crop (not resized). Shot RAW with a bit of sharpening and some brightness tweaking.

Comments

[forestweather.livejournal.com]

wow. I'm in awe of the photo/skills.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

If you know what kind of bird that is, I'm open to suggestions. I really think it's some kind of juvenile, not a cowbird. It's too big to be a finch, I think. It was a bit larger than the adult sparrows.

[jebra.livejournal.com]

I, however, am in awe of your rummage sale fu.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Here's a photo of the lens. I'm not compensating for anything, really, I swear!

I agree: cowbird

[bwittig.livejournal.com]

Looks like a female cowbird.

Beak matches, slight lighter patch below the beak in front and wings slightly darker brown than the body.

Matches what is shown in my book.