Brown Goshawk (I think)

[wigz]

I saw a couple of birds chasing another larger bird the other day during a walk in the forest. They were high in the trees and all I could see was a silhouette. I thought it might have been a raptor or a Koel. I could see even less through the viewfinder but I tried a shot even though it was partly obscured by branches. I only got one shot and it flew off into another tree where it was even more obscured,

It was the only shot from the walk so I left it for later and then forgot about it. Just remembered it this afternoon and decided to have a look.Opening it just showed a silhouette, but increasing brightness and lifting shadows revealed this.

It had a thickish branch running across its breast but surprisingly Photoshop Generative Fill removed it cleanly. I haven't bothered to remove any more branches as i think there is too much of the tail obscured to recover,

I don't see many raptors and have managed to photographed even fewer so I was happy to get this rather poor shot. At least it is reasonably sharp,

Any corrections as to species would be welcome.

[Ozzie_Traveller]

Hi Alan

No idea as to bird type, but I'd be happy enough with the result

Phil

[wigz]

Thanks Phil. Most photos look good at a small size, but it is much better than I expected.

[David_MC]

Excellent shot you got there. Beautiful bird.

[wigz]

Thanks David

[MJ224]

FWIW, my Seek App says a Roadside Hawk. Then goes onto say it is an American bird....so unsure...

The chest pattern is similar to our Sparrow Hawks in UK. Though this looks a lot bigger than those...

[wigz]

We have two similar species. Collared Sparrowhawk and Brown Goshawk. The Sparrowhawk is smaller with slender legs and is less often seen, which is why I went for the Goshawk.

[Isac]

100% Brown Goshawk Alan. I've actually photographed one outside my front door. I thought your image was great but I thought some work on the tree would have made it pop. Although I'm not doing much editing on members phots, I just couldn't help myself with this one. Really not a difficult edit because of the consistent sky colour throughout.

Amendment: I fixed the halos and altered the tail - borrowed the tip section from an online image.

[wigz]

Thanks Isac, that looks good. I've since removed all the extra branches except the one over the tail.

[Isac]

It was great to get the tools out on this one Alan. Are you posting your new version?

[wigz]

I wasn't going to Isac, as yours looks pretty good, although there is a bit of a light halo and some posterisation in the sky around the bird but not surprising given the small size and the jpg decoding/encoding that the image has gone through. Where did the detail in the tail come from.

Anyway here is my effort. There is still a bit of fuzziness on some branch edges but it will do me.

[Isac]

Well done Alan. The fuzzy edges can be fixed using channels to create a sharp mask. You did well with the tail. I cheated and borrowed a small piece from the web.

[wigz]

Thanks Isac. I’ve also done a new version from scratch with better NR, colour, contrast and sharpness, although you wouldn’t see much, if any, difference at this size. I didn’t take too much care initially as I thought it would be a throw-away image.

[MJ224]

Looks good........

[wigz]

Thanks Mark