Phainopepla, male

Very nice, Neil. I like the dark bird against the "delicate" foliage. Good eye contact and detail and nice handling of the exposure on the dark bird.

what a great shot Niel., super sharp.

Great shot, Neil. I really like the comp and the inclusion of the habitat. Nice job with the exposure, too.

Excellent, Neil! This is exactly how I saw the bird in Southern CA earlier this year, but never got a picture as good as this..

I also think this is excellent. I like the pose, comp and setting and that red eye is great. I'd have to learn how to spell the common name if I ever got a shot of this species (you got it right Neil, I checked).

Lovely shot Neil - great detail in the dark plumage and I like the fine intricate nature of the foliage

cheers Rob

Silky and sleek. I love those birds. Nice job Neil. Love the habitat too.

Exceptional exposure for this bird Neil and I really enjoy the lacey foliage on the shrub. Great pose & colors, I like your choice of DOF.

Outsnading as posted.

Dead on Neil. I have found it hard to get much detail on this black and shiny bird. You showed the way!

Excellent composition. Love the background. Great pose with nice head turn and catch light.
May

Wow. I love everything about this one. Congrats!

This is great Neil! In my limited experience with them, they are hard to get close to and even harder to photograph well. I like the setting, just enough habitat without being too distracting.

Fabulous image in all respects, Neil.

Cool bird, fantastic exposure with lots of detail in the blacks and very well processed. I do like the habitat in the form of the thornbush branches Neil, but do find the branches right behind the bird a bit unfortunate, if only these were a bit more to the right or left. Despite that an imgae worthy of the EP IMO, congrats!

I don't know how I missed this earlier, Neil, but this is a wonderful shot. Masterful management of the blacks, and very crisp. These silky flycatchers are famously difficult to get crisp, and you've done a terrific job. Congratulations on a well-deserved EP.

Congratulations on the WP, very worthy. Beautiful job on the contrast and color of this bird, seems like it would be a challenging bird to photograph well but you make it look easy.

Beautiful.