Red-tailed Black Cockies

[Ironwood]

Had a visit from a trio of these fellas yesterday. They took up positions high up in one of the Cadagi trees, which made shooting a bit difficult. The smoke haze from the fires didn't help either.

#1


#2


#3

[Toddyh]

Harsh background there. #2 based purely on the obstructions in the others.

[Ironwood]

Cheers Todd. The buggers didn’t give me too many options for getting the shots I’m afraid. These were the better ones out of about 30 shots that I took while they were there.

[Grumpy John]

..............................................
The smoke haze from the fires didn't help either.

#2, for the same reason.
As Toddy stated, harsh conditions. Think of the smoke as a huge soft box.

[Ironwood]

Thanks John. The big softbox could be an advantage if only the sun wasn’t directly overhead, as a result the birds were very backlit. I think that the shots were only possible because I had the Better Beamer on the camera.

[Isac]

They make for a wonderful image Ironwood, they have such great personalities. I think you did well to get nice clear shots for them being high up and in the smokey conditions.

[Ironwood]

Thanks Isac, I agree they make great subjects, I just wish they would make things a bit easier for me, like choosing a lower branch and having the sun behind me. But you know what it’s like, sometimes you just have to take what you can get.

[wigz]

Black birds against a light sky - now that's a difficult shot. Good detail on the birds. Pity they stayed so high.

[Ironwood]

Black birds against a light sky - now that's a difficult shot. Good detail on the birds. Pity they stayed so high.

Cheers Alan. I am pretty confident that I wouldn’t have gotten any useable shots if I wasn’t using the Better Beamer.
I see these birds passing by fairly regularly, I think they live on the mountain to the north of my house, but they rarely stop at my place and when they do, they have never presented me an easy shot.
I am happy to get these shots, even though they aren’t great.