Green-tailed Towhee (Pipilo chlorurus)

Place: Phoenix, AZ
Date: April 11, 2017, 8:06 am
Equipment: Nikon D7200, AF-S Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR @ 400mm, G1325, RRS BH-55
Exposure: Auto ISO 1250, Shutter priority matrix metered, 1/250th @ f/5.6
Raw, PS CC 2017 on Mac, cropped to 73% of full frame

Not all the visitors to our back yard are on my unpopular list. We have been seeing a Green-tailed Towhee in spring migration each year for the past five years or so. The towhee shows up near a wall outside the house and kicks around the leaf litter from a large mesquite tree. They rarely stay beyond one day and my photo attempts in previous years have been rather poor. This year I managed two acceptable shots through the glass window.

I’d prefer a little more space behind the tail; I’m grateful that I didn’t clip it in this frame as I did most of the others.

Since the long ago days of my first Nikon EL I’ve shot in aperture preferred mode, but I’ve recently been trying shutter preferred along with auto ISO. This has been working well in low light situations with the D7200 - the ISO performance is decent and the camera allows two “user settings” on one dial that store all the primary settings for the two modes.

Honest critiques requested; all comments appreciated. If possible please view the large version before commenting.