Colour Birds

Hello all. Last time I posted some pics it was a set of B/W bird portraits from a recent trip to Birdworld near Basingstoke. As promised, here are a handful of colour pics from the same trip:

1. African Grey



2. Not sure what this chap is, and I was shooting him through vegetation to try and eliminate the mesh and bars of the enclosure. Not altogether successful but worth a go I thought... he's a handsome chap nonetheless



3. A proud looking crowned pigeon



4. A young Humboldt's Penguin



5. Black Crowned Night Heron tries out some daytime



6. Up close with a Rhea



7. Unmistakably Toucan!



8. Mick and Keef (?) - these tiny finches were incredibly endearing and spent their time huddled together in their enclosure.



9. ...and just to highlight that not all of the birds at Birdworld are captive, this was our lunchtime companion (who got plenty of crumbs!)



Hope you like them - any C&C welcome. There are plenty more on my flickr stream. All were taken with the K-5 and either the DA*300 (first three), or the DA*200 (the rest). It was a pretty grey day and the K-5 was a noticeable improvement over my old K-7 simply on account of its ISO performance.

Best Regards

Perfect set.
Great colours, are these raw or jpeg.

Great set of pics .. number 1 and 7 stand out for me, especially like the angle and colours of the Toucan.

Great set, I also like the Toucan shot, very nice.

have to agree with MikeP on the toucan. What I'm astounded by is the size of the heron's eyes, huge. Must need them for night hunting I presume. Isn't number 2 some kind of pheasant?

Really interesting set

As they say the toucan shot is just great - unusual angle! All good captures but IMHO the penguin and Rhea shots are mighty fine.

Thanks very much all! I like the Toucan as well - I just think they are very characterful birds, and (simply owing to the size of them) forced me to try out some different angles to fit them into the frame.

Rosered - these were all taken as RAW files and then tweaked in Photoshop Elements;

Steve - I think you are right about the pheasant - it certainly looks like one. And I agree about the size of the Heron's eyes. I think (like you) this must be for night-time light collection when hunting. They also seem angled down somewhat, although I guess this is an advantage if your prey is beneath your eyeline (or on the ground you are flying over) - here is another shot of the same bird in which it almost looks (to me at least) as if he has his head on upside down!!:




Regards

The Toucan is taken at an angle I would not have considered - another day in which I have learned something

Really nice shots - the eyes in that last one are stunning

Lovely set Mat. The toucan is pretty special

Fabulous set of pictures Mat.

Regards
David