Amazing Birds

[Isac]

This week at the lake, I saw a few birds and a couple I haven't seen before.

#1 - Common old Crow.

#2 - Swans are back!! It's the right time for some eggs so here's hoping for a few cygnets soon.

#3 - The Mudlark looks a bit pensive about it's chosen perch and looks poised for a quick exit if anything should drop from above.

#4 - Red Capped Parrot: Never seen one before so this is special.

#5 - A beautiful little Brown Honeyeater.

#6 - Lovely colours on this Twenty Eight Parrot.

#7 - Two Mudlarks with perfect positions to spot any enemies.

#8 - Black Faced Cuckoo Shrike. It was about 30 metres up right at the top of the pine tree.

#9 - I haven't seen a Magpie with this pattern before so this is another special find.
It would probably look better if I changed the black feathers to Navy Blue - a project for another time.

[HansE]

The birds on the pole look like they are on a merrygoround. The Magpie looks like a young one. I think it's a Cuckoo shrike I call back to here in NSW Never see him only wistle his call back, quite musical

[Isac]

Cheers Hans. The "Merry-go-round" is our light poles. We have underground power and they are in the centre island on a dual carriageway. You may be right with the magpie but it was pretty big for a young one. The Shrikes do have a charming and distinctive call.

[Grumpy John]

Nice set Isac, but what did you do to the crow in PP, looks strange on my monitor.
Did you drop a new sky behing him?

[Isac]

Thanks for that John. The crow was almost a silhouette so the challenge was there to get some detail in the feathers. The sky was one from the same area, different day. The original was just a light grey so very boring.

[kevinj]

A very nice collection,great variety,but,have to agree with John,the Crow doesn`t look right.

[Isac]

Just a hint guys. When you comment on an image and say "It doesn't look right" or "Looks strange", that's sort of comment is as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike! It would be better to TELL ME why you think it looks weird, so I can fix it - that's what CC is all about yeah? C'mon - lets have it, I can take it

[kevinj]

Your shot of the crow looks like a quick copy and paste job,it has a harsh outline and the colour looks faded,more grey than black.Agree with John,the branch looks totally added and definately not up to your standard,thinking of the branch you added to my redback Fairywren shot.

[Grumpy John]

Just noticed the halo around the crow.

[Isac]

John, I don't know what happened to the sky - the replacement sky didn't look like that. I guess I just had a bad PS day

[Isac]

Cheers fellas! That's better CC. I have redone the photo. In the original, the crow had no detail and was pitch black. So this time I just lightened the crow using a transparent dodge layer - great for lifting detail in dark objects, and I retained its original perch. I still think a sky fix would lift the image but maybe a grey with some soft clouds and some light peaking through.

[Grumpy John]

I think that you were always going to struggle with that shot. I actually don't mind the original image. Maybe go the other way and give it a dark foreboding sky, something goth.

[Isac]

Nice work John, very creative. Mmmm ... maybe another edit.

[Grumpy John]

Not my work, result of DuckDuck search.

[Isac]

Another attempt.

Maybe a book cover:

[Grumpy John]

Yes, I like that.

[Grumpy John]

There was a very good movie by that title.



And another movie with crow in the title.



Plenty of inspiration.

[Isac]

You're probably aware that a group of crow is called a "murder", why I do not know! They are often referred to as the most horrible of all the birds.

[avkomp]

number 5 looks to be a brown honey eater too

[Isac]

Cheers Stephen.