Red-bellied Woodpecker - Rare For Us!

[Daniel Cadieux]

• Canon EOS 7D Mark II
• EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4x
• ƒ/5.6
• 700mm
• 1/1600s
• ISO 800
• Daniel Cadieux
• Flash not fired
• Sun, 24 January 2021 9:35 AM
• Daniel Cadieux
• Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)

I know this species is very common for many of you that are south of me, but believe it or not this is a rare species for me up here - just north of its usual upper-northern range limit. This male has been coming down to feed on a platform feeder found in a public space (but going straight to the feeder), and it is tough to setup unless you are arriving before anyone else (which is what I did, ha!). Some folks are odd here as if you step up to setup, even in a lull in action, you may get berated for disturbing the birds. Sigh:bugeyed:. So before sunrise I headed out, setup a perch I had previously found for this occasion, and spread a bit of peanut butter in strategic spots. Bingo! very standard "woodpecker on a tree" image, but my first image of a red-bellied so I'll take it!

Canon 7DII + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC III, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, FF.

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot Dan, I suspect there were quite a few that were not sharp but this one is super,,,,, hey where's his tongue:bg3:

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

Super shot Dan, I suspect there were quite a few that were not sharp but this one is super,,,,, hey where's his tongue:bg3:

Thanks! Oops, typo on the SS. It was 1/1600s, and not 1/160s....so they were pretty much all sharp:t3 Fixed in the caption

 

[Bill Dix]

Classic WP pose, complete with tail prop, great HA and a hint of his red belly. Lovely light. I'll trade you three Red-bellies for a Redpoll and an Evening Grosbeak. The Red-bellies spend a lot of time on my feeders picking through all the nuts and seeds until they find just the right one, scattering the rest on the ground for the squirrels.

 

[William Daub]

Look at this beauty! :2eyes2: :S3:

 

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Yes, pretty common down here in Michigan, but still a good looking bird, well rendered here. Nice colors, light. I could see a version with 10-15% cropped off the top, just personal taste.

Cheers

Randy

 

[annmpacheco]

Glad you got this after your early morning efforts, colors and Bg look good for this classic pose!

 

[Brian Sump]

Daniel, a lovely capture.

Digging the sort of flame effect in the bkg from the bottom up. Great light angle and nicely processed in terms of colors and details.

I would consider maybe cropping down from top right a little perhaps. A winner none-the-less.

 

[dankearl]

About perfect light, Perch and BG... is this 2 x 3? if so I would leave alone, I crop standard crops always... if not, I would take some off the top.

 

[kevin Hice]

Fantastic Shot Daniel and love the story. Great colors and detail and love the background colors. TFS

 

[David Roach]

Standard my... Well you know... Yes very common here, but this frame is special. The light, the perch, the BG and the composition (FF). TFS

ps
That eye...

 

[Dorian Anderson]

Beautiful result! I echo all the positives. However, I agree with Dan about the crop; it's a bit vacuous as is. I'd lose some of it as he mentioned.

 

[arash_hazeghi]

pretty shot Dan, love the colors and the BG light was excellent

TFS

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Daniel .... simply lovely shot .
TFS Andreas