Green-tailed Towhee

Photographed in my front meadow. I was glad to see the towhees raising towhees instead of cowbirds this year.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 400 DO f4, 1/250, f5, exp. comp. +1/3, ISO 400

C & C most welcome.

Gorgeous color and feather detail here, Nancy. I like the perch and the background as well.

Nancy -- I've never even heard of a green-tailed towhee. I've never seen so much lavender on a song bird. Quite unique and beautiful and well done on the image.

Nancy, this is really perfect! Sharpness, details on the bird, background and the perch. Great image without even stepping out of the front door!!

Very nice "yard bird" to have around!

And you have captured it perfectly! Excellent perch, pose, BG, and detail! Very nicely done!

Only thing I wonder about is the color balance. I have never seen one of these but the colors looked a bit odd so I looked
it up and Sibley says it has a gray body. As Danny mentioned, this is looking quite magenta/lavender.

Lovely shot! Good even light and sharpness. Great BG too. I have no idea what the bird should look like but there does seem to be a bluish cast evident in the reflected light on the leaves.

Very nice pose and detail. The bug in the beak is a bonus.
Over here I have to travel a lot to see these towhees. It's a lot of driving but it's worth it. I envy you having them in the front yard. :S3:
I agree about the cast (maybe shot in the shade?). I would also suggest moving the bird higher in the frame.

great pose, perch and BG. image has a strong magenta cast.

Repost

Thanks everyone for your comments. It's funny, when I lived elsewhere I tried to see this species for years. And now it is right outside my front door! I made an effort to incorporate the changes as suggested, new crop and color shift.

repost still has a strong magenta cast

I would add that you do not have an embedded color profile in this image. When you save for web in Photoshop, you must make sure that you check 'Embed color profile'.

Hi Nancy,

I'm also still seeing the magenta cast.
Here is my attempt at color balancing using a series of Color Balance adjustment layers and an alternate crop as well.
See what you think ...

Doug, I didn't know to check "embed color profile". Will do. Mike, this seems too green to me. I struggle with color casts as I must not see them as others do. This is supposed to be a neutral gray bird with the yellow/green in the wings & the tail. I just could not find an adjustment to get that neutral gray that did not overly effect everything else :eek3:.

Mike's version looks pretty good to my eyes. It looks like the magenta is gone.
Nice shot, I like the last versin the best. A very close second would be the original post.

Nancy, which tool do you use in your workflow? If you happen to use Lightroom or ACR, you can use the white balance tool to set the right color balance.
I tried setting to +20/-39 on your picture and I get colors which look better (similar to Mike's).
You can also use the White Balance Selector (eyedropper) and click on a neutral color (e.g. the white on the bird's throat) to get a better balance.

I don't know if it helps, but for comparison here is a Green-tailed Towhee i posted a couple of days ago:
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/87047-Green-tailed-Towhee

Luis, I use ACR. I'll try the eye dropper approach. Sorry I missed your posting of the Green-tailed Towhee. It looks wonderful!

Way to go with Mike's version for me. Lovely bird and great catch by both.