Violet-tailed Sylth

The bird is lovely and almost florescent. The perch is fine. The dead leaf and vine is not really necessary, IMO. Maybe to balance the comp. I can easily be closed out, if you want to. All in all, a lovely bird.

Beautiful bird and I really like your comp Ken. I think I like it more with the dead leaf than I would without. Beautiful colors. I see some noise but you didn't have much light for the 40D.

Amazingly beautiful bird, nicely captured against a very nice background. The dead vine and leaf definitely draw my attention and I would remove it if it was mine which would also make it look better in a frame IMO. I can't help but wonder if this is a setup perch near a feeder and an artificial background. Artificial or natural, the background looks great IMO.

Ken, great shot of this beauty! I think it's a Violet- tailed Sylph too.
Exquisite irredescent colors, great pose, nice perch and that leaf really adds a lot of interest without adding any color that would compete with Mr. Beauty here.
Looks as if it might need a little CCW rotation ? seems as if he is leaning backward a bit..

Sandy

Wow, what colors in this bird Ken. Love it. I don't mind the vine and leaf at all. The bird is so colorful and unusual that I am drawn to the bird first and that is what matters to me. Nice work with little light and ISO 800 on the 40D.

Wonderful bird and well captured. It looks like a cross between a scissor tail and a humming bird!

Great detail & BG Ken, the iridescent colors are awesome.
I think the diagonal branch with lichen makes a nice perch.
The dried vine with leaves adds some good "random" interest IMO, not your standard, "sterile" comp.
Well done

wow--great bird, Ken. I like your comp and feel that the vine and leaf are welcome--they sort of give the bird something to look at. maybe a little noise, but not bad at all, especially given the conditions--I'd be very happy with this.

Hi Ken great capture of an amazing bird! Beautiful color and B.G. agree with the others, the dried leaf adds balance to the composition.
Albert Darmo. Canada

Excellent, Ken. Definitely an eye-catcher with all that iridescence. Good detail and a nice pose. I like the composition and the perch. The dead leaf adds a nice balance to the image.

Great job with this composition Ken. Those colors are awesome. Really nice detail, especially for ISO 800. Great image.

What a bird, beautifully captured. This would make a nice magazine cover. I wouldn't clone, rotate, or change anything for that matte.r

Amazing bird well captured.

Probably a Violet-tailed, Ken; it's hard to tell for sure from this angle, but I'd say there is a throat patch on this guy, which is diagnostic for Violet-tailed. Maybe Nate will weigh in. Excellent composition. Ordinarily I'm not a fan of flash on hummingbirds because it distorts their iridescence, but your level of fill-flash is quite good here. However, assuming I'm right on the ID, it has given the tail a bluer cast than the usual violet.

A beautiful bird well captured. Light conditions were obviously not good but the flash has worked very well. I think after consideration I would leave the leaf and vine in it gives more interest and balance to the image. Graham

Ken,

I like the dried leaf and vine in this image, it adds inteerest and goes beyond the typical BOAS. Lovely colors and pose, eye contact and comp.

Gorgeous bird. Great iridescence. Love the comp with the diagonal branch and long tail. Great pose, too. I am thinking it would be hard to compose a shot with such a long tail, and this composition works great for me.

Amazing colors and what a beautiful bird, excellent comp to go along, well done.

This is lovely, that's some tail he has
Well done.

Geoff.

Fantastic Ken - love the comp with the vine/leaf. I'd be tempted to do some NR on the background as there is a fair bit of noise in the larger image. Great shot

cheers
Rob

Truly beautiful bird... too bad about that dead leaf - what a shame!