I almost never run wildlife photos here, but I did yesterday and here’s another, of a cute little part-yellow bird I saw flitting around in the bushes near Lake Okanagan. With a note for photo-geeks.
I’ll be unsurprised if some erudite reader fills in the species.
Photogeekery · I didn’t have a real telephoto and this guy was a ways away, so I had to crop the image way down. Thus, if you click on it to see the enlarged version, you’re looking at a 1:1 crop; the pixels on your screen are (modulo a little Lightroom sharpening and white-balancing), the pixels off the camera sensor.
Which is something you normally don’t want to do and yes, the picture’s a little soft. That it’s usable at all is a tribute to the quality of the sensor in the K20D but even more to the awesome power of the DA* 50-135mm, here cranked right out to 135mm and right open to f2.8. It’s a hell of a lens.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: kjw (Jul 31 2009, at 00:33)
It looks good for a female American goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) in breeding plumage.
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From: Clayton O'Neill (Jul 31 2009, at 08:26)
Not sure why, but the yellow on the 100% crop actually seems more vivid than the crop in the post.
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From: Lee (Jul 31 2009, at 14:54)
Not a goldfinch; the beak is all wrong (goldfinches have a very pyramidal-shaped beak; this is longer and pointed).
I think some sort of wren, but I'm weak on wrens.
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From: Scott Fraser (Jul 31 2009, at 18:28)
Hi there.
This appears to be a female Oriole, specific species TBD. If you took this out East I would call it a female Baltimore Oriole. But since this was taken at Okanagan Lake I am not so sure as I don't know if they are out there.
Bullock's Oriole is up there but it doesn't look quite right: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bullocks_Oriole/id
Here is a Baltimore Oriole page:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Baltimore_Oriole/id
Pictures of female Baltimore Orioles:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&um=1&sa=1&q=female+baltimore+oriole&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&start=0
Okanagan Lake is on the edge of the Baltimore Oriole range.
Some birders might also see what looks like a Blue-winged Warbler, but it is not that:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue-winged_Warbler/id
I have pinged some birder friends to see if anyone else has thoughts.
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From: Scott Fraser (Jul 31 2009, at 20:28)
Based on some tips from others, and a little more thinking, I am starting to lean toward female Bullock's Oriole:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&um=1&sa=1&q=female+bullocks+oriole&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&start=0
Cheers!
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From: kjw (Aug 01 2009, at 11:34)
Good work, Lee and Scott. I didn't take note of the beak, which would have ruled out the goldfinch. It does look pretty good for a female Bullock's. Thanks for the correction!
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