Red wing BB

Hi John. Nice and sharp and a good pose, although I like shooting these guys from the side, if possible, to see that name sake red chevron on the wing. Difficult bird to get detail in the black feathers, so light has to be perfect. The mostly bright sky background makes exposure tricky. Did you spot meter on the bird's chest?

Eye looks very sharp, as do the feet and perch. Interesting blur in the tail. The biggest issue for me is no detail in the chest. Where did you spot meter. If you spot metered off the chest you would end up with an overexposed image as the meter would assume 18% reflectance from the chest and cause an over exposed image.

I metered off of the head. Not sure what happened with the tail, almost looks like a ghost image, but was not using flash. Thanks for your comments.

John, I suspect the appearance of the tail is due to their near constant habit of pumping it, just a bit of motion blur I would say.

Good capture, but the loss of detail in the blacks detracts.