Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Unknown Bird Species

My grandson and I went to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, FL today. One of the first places we visited was the Free Flight Aviary where I spotted this bird.

Usually I take a photo of the signs so I know what kind of bird or animal I'm photographing. Today I didn't bother because Lowry Zoo always had each bird and animal identified on their website. Wouldn't you know, they've changed their website and no longer have photos and names. What a shame! I'd love to know what kind of bird this is.

He's sitting on top of his nest box about to go in. It looks like he might have some feed in his mouth for either the nesting female or maybe even chicks. There are a lot of new chicks at the zoo in the aviary. I refer to this bird as a he since he's so brilliantly colored and most of the time the most colorful is the male.

I made this image using fill flash at -1 stop. It was a little bright so I toned it down in Lightroom. The next time I think I'll use - 1 1/2 stops. I used Aperture Priority at + 1/3 stops at F 6.3 to ensure I'd have enough detail in the bird while blurring out the background and 1/250 shutter speed to stop any action on the bird's part. I used my 55-250mm lens at 250mm.

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