Cedar Waxwing

[Matt K.]

Was really lucky to get "up close and personal" with this cedar waxwing. Then it became clear to me: that bird just gorged himself on choke cherry blossoms, and was to frigging fat to fly away.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4668350230_3bce631a28_b.jpg

[Richard]

Really nice shot, love the natural framing of the bird. Excellent. :thumbup:

[Hillbillygirl]

Very nice capture Matt, love the perch.

[Wicked Dark]

yes, nicely framed. I used to live in an apt. that had a mulberry tree in the yard. The waxwings would gorge themselves on the fermenting berries and get too drunk to fly away. My pics never came out this well though. : )

[Bambi]

drunken birds would be a great pictures!

nicely done Matt! I quite like this. :thumbup:

[Matt K.]

Thanks, all; I have to say i was very pleased not to have to crop a lot in this image. My trusty 70-200 lens has to do for these shots until I can afford a longer lens. So sneaking up on those birds usually ends up with them flying off as soon as one has the camera ready. Those waxwings, however, posed quite nicely.

[OWLP]

Vg shot with 200mm only. I know how close you have to get to the birds. At least I have 300mm and 1.6 crop factor because of the 22mm sensor. I am saving for 500mm too. :)

[Matt K.]

Vg shot with 200mm only. I know how close you have to get to the birds. At least I have 300mm and 1.6 crop factor because of the 22mm sensor. I am saving for 500mm too. :)

Thanks. Yes, the "BIGMA" is on my wish list. Not sure if I should go for the 120-400 or the 150-500 Sigma. Any pointers? I can't afford the Nikon lenses, or the prime telephoto lenses with those 2.8 apertures :wall-an:

[JAS_Photo]

Beautiful photo of one of my favourite little birds. :)

[Foots]

Wonderful shot, love the velvety brown feathers. If you can take pictures like this with a 200 why do you need more?

[edG]

excellent capture!!

[Matt K.]

Wonderful shot, love the velvety brown feathers. If you can take pictures like this with a 200 why do you need more?

Thanks, Foots. Well, to be honest: most winged things have a way of fluttering off before you get close enough with a 200mm lens. I was pretty close to the bird on this one, but usually have never managed to "sneak" up on birds close enough to not scare them away. Wait, there is one exception:


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4674959739_cc1f79bb15_b.jpg



This was during an outing with the Foothills Camera Club. Had my 35mm lens on the camera and really wanted to know how close I could get. Everyone was shooting me trying to capture the raven. Needless to say, most of them had their big guns on their cameras and were quite a bit further away.

[Rinkdaddy]

Very nice. I like how clear the bird is compared to the foliage.