Long-tailed Duck.

I decided that I would post one or two images of this winter visitor before they head up North, which should be any day now.
Thanks for looking.

Canon 5D M III
Canon 500 f4.0 L IS II. +1.4x III.
ISO 400
f7.1
1/2000 s
HH

The composition is nice but the bird is not in focus, perhaps the the focus was just missed on this shot. Also the whites are quite hot, but thats often made worse when the subject is out of focus I find. Still I would try and do some recovery if you have one to post that is sharp. A black spec above the bird in the water is also distracting. Sorry I didn't have anything more positive to say. Would be a nice image if you get the focus nailed however.

Hi Karl,

i agree with Ashley. Wonderful bird but a little bit out of focus.

Hi Karl,
I think Ashley has nailed the critique.
Gail

Gail, Holger, thanks for your honest and constructive critique.
However, there is not much I can do to correct it.
The active focus point was on the neck, shutter speed was 1/2000 s so hand holding with the IS on shouldn't have been a problem.
This Duck species has a very "smooth" feathering. The smoothness might indicate that there was something wrong.
I have a few more shots and will post one more fore sure.
Keep in mind that you will never see "fine details" in this duck and it is not the result of lack of sharpness.
This jus my two cents.

Hi Karl,

you are right. I let myself be fooled by the plumage. Beak and eye are are sharp. Feather in the wings, too.
Sorry. Next time I'll probably study more.

Im Sorry Karl but it's clearly out of focus, or there's some image shake going on. Any chance you can post a 100% crop of the face without sharpening. I'll gladly take my comment back but good photography friend has said the same.

Hi Karl. I have to agree with Ashley. The image is not in focus. The head is clearly not sharp. Had the focus been spot on it would be a cracking shot.

It's a magnificent looking duck Karl and this is a nice capture of the long-tail of this adult. In winter plumage, the whites are very difficult to expose properly in bright sunlight and the feathers do lack fine detail as you pointed out. If this is a hefty crop, you simply may not have had enough pixels on the bird. Or perhaps some issue with movement. But, all in all this is a regal capture of a relatively small duck.