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White-throated Kingfisher


White-throated Kingfisher
Photo Information
Copyright: Elroyie David (elroyie) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 299 W: 87 N: 1482] (6439)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2005-02-11
Categories: Birds
Camera: Canon EOS 20D, Canon EF100-400 IS L, Kenko Pro 300 1.4x Teleconvert
Exposure: f/5.6, 1/125 seconds
Details: (Fill) Flash: Yes
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Theme(s): Kingfishers [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2005-03-13 6:22
Viewed: 6403
Favorites: 5 [view]
Points: 48
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Suddenly I realized that I didn't uploade here even one of my White-thtoated kingfishers, so here is one of them :)

White-throated Kingfisher - Halcyon smyrnensis

Descriptive notes.

A medium sized, noisy, with long tail and large red bill kingfisher. 26-28 cm, 75-110 g, wingspan 40-43 cm.
Distinctive dark chestnut, blue and white bib plumage. Male of nominate race has dark chestnut head, flanks and belly, white throat and breast, blue back, wings and tail. Lesser wing coverts, cedian coverts dark blue, white patch at base of black primaries obvious in flight. Bill red, iris dark brown, orbital skin red, legs and feet dusky red.
Female slightly paler head and belly. Juvenile duller, breast with fine dark scallops.
Race fusca smaller, slightly darker, less green tinge in blues, race saturatior darker browns, and gularis only chin and throat white.

Habitat.

Varied: swamps, ponds, canals, dams, mudflats, beaches with trees, farmland, large gardens, dry deciduous forest and roadside trees.
Usually avoids dense forest except for clearings.

Food and Feeding

Wide variety of prey, include insects like grasshoppers and crickets, earwigs, cockroaches, bugs, beetles, also crabs and crustaceans, earthworms, fish, frog and roads, lizards, snakes, birds and rodents.
Typical sit and wait predator, spends long periods on perch up to 10 m above ground (before diving head first or landing feet first), can hover for a moment over water before snatching prey.

Breeding.

Jun in Egypt, Apr-May in Israel and Iraq, Jan-Aug in India, Dec-Aug in Malaysia and Mar-Apr in Thailand, Sumatra and Philippines.
Monogamous. Drop in water level may be external stimulus for laying, sometimes double-brooded.
Nest usually in earthen bank of ditch, stream, river, pond or road cutting, sometimes in termitarium, rock crevice, (in Israel sometimes in nest hole of bee-eater).
Nest-chamber at end of inclined tunnel 30-150 cm long. 5-6 eggs, both parents incubate, period 18-20 days, and both also feed chicks.

Movements.

Populations of Middle East across to S China and Hong Kong, exhibit partial short-distance migration, with seasonal changes in abundance, probably involving mostly juveniles.
Vagrants recorded in Greece, Cyprus, various Middle East countries including Syria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, also former USSR.
JeanMichel, sAner, marhowie, Alan_Kolnik, Callie, tzeybek, PDP, carper, asfur, mogens-j, sergegagne, gerhardt, sandpiper2, Fisher, deud, AdrianW, Platypus has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To PDP: About the noise.elroyie 2 03-13 14:50
To Alan_Kolnik: You did very good workelroyie 1 03-13 13:39
To sAner: You are rightelroyie 1 03-13 07:27
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Critiques [Translate]

A perfect bird shot, Elroyie. It's sharp and detailed and the wonderful colors of this kingfisher come out very well with lot's of nice shades. Interesting note. Unfortunately, they don't visit us here.

  • Great 
  • Toni Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 403 W: 2 N: 316] (2034)
  • [2005-03-13 6:55]

Very nice shot. très belle composition. bravo

  • Great 
  • sAner Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1455 W: 74 N: 1426] (4750)
  • [2005-03-13 7:22]
  • [2] [+]

Superb picture. The colors are great and the details on the bird are razorsharp. POV, DOF & composition are excellent. You did really well. My only nit would be that the branches in the back (they are perfectly blurred) distract me a little somehow. Don't know why. TFS!

Elroyie, Sharp & detailed with vivid color. Well done!

This is a beautiful picture which is somewhat spoiled by the branch intruding over the body of the kingfisher. I hope you don't mind the workshop I added - I simply cloned the branch out - no other changes - by carefully stamping similar body areas over the branch. You could do som similar work onthe background, which has a bit too much disturbing branches as well - though an interesting example, I believe, of "bokeh".

  • Great 
  • Callie Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1101 W: 95 N: 2610] (7555)
  • [2005-03-13 8:24]
  • [2]

Hi Elroyie
Defnitely one 'fisher that we never see, so TFS A beautiful bird, and you did a great job in nailing him, the OOF Bg is very nice with all the twigs fading away!

Composition:*****
Technical quality:****
Wow factor:****
Personality:*****

Great shot, even if I find the branches a bit distracting.
Well done.
TFS.

Very good portrait of beautiful bird Elroyie.
Good POV, pose, composition, very good details and the BG in nice OOF.
Very well done.

Wonderful shot. Excellent POV & composition. Sharp details and great colors. Well done.

  • Great 
  • PDP Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor [C: 2821 W: 344 N: 3779] (11769)
  • [2005-03-13 13:20]
  • [2] [+]

Hi Elroyie, very nice bird and good shot. There appears to be some noise in the BG, I see the ISO was 800, maybe a little noise reduction would have improved this. Great picture.

  • Great 
  • carper Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1973 W: 119 N: 2582] (8439)
  • [2005-03-13 14:19]
  • [2]

I like it very much Elroyie, this is realy a super shot, a kingfisher, sitting and Elroyie may took a photo from the beauty of this fantastic bird. It's my favourite little bird, by us the are about 12 cm higvh, enough, very good composing shot, great pof, fantastic colours and sharpnes, very good job

What a fantastic celebration of colour in nature - absolutely perfect.
Good colors, details and sharpness.
Well done!

  • Great 
  • vero Silver Star Critiquer [C: 44 W: 8 N: 16] (342)
  • [2005-03-13 16:05]

Bel oiseau, belle réalisation!
La netteté de l'avant plan se détache super bien du flou du fond. Bravo!

Fantastic capture Elroyie. Excellent handling of the light not to burn his white feathers and even keep some details in the dark areas. Wonderful colours and very good pose. The composition is just perfect. - I wonder, is he using the twig as a back scratcher;-).

  • Great 
  • jossim Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1538 W: 5 N: 2240] (12636)
  • [2005-03-13 20:24]

Beau spécimen que je n'ais jamais vue avec de belle couleurs et une bonne prise de vue.

félicitations !

BEAUTIFUL bird, Elroyie! Superb colors. Great note too. My only nit are the white, distracting branches in the BG. But this is really great work. TFS.

We don't have such birds here that I know of, but they are certainly beautiful. You've done a wonderful job capturing the colors and details of this bird. The focus is so good you can see every feather. Fantastic!

  • Great 
  • radz Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 598 W: 11 N: 72] (436)
  • [2005-03-13 23:04]

Excellent kingfisher shot one of my fav bird.11/10.

I don't find the branches to distracting though. Its a nice photo of this bird. Well composed, colorfull and sharp. I am glad you round to posting one of them, though. Well done.

What a beautiful shot of this handsome kingfisher. You have done a great job here, great POV and composition. Not sure about the background, but it doesn't distract to much from the bird, just a little. TFS.

  • Great 
  • Fisher Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1540 W: 309 N: 2234] (8915)
  • [2005-03-17 17:39]

WOW!!! What a view. Excelent capture and composition. The details are great.
Some would say that the white is cooked, after some time in studying digital etc. this is reality. I find the white alright. The background is good as well, shows reality of the site where this is captured. The branch on the birdas well is reality. Excelent work.
What a beautiful, "Fisher" :) :)

Mike

  • Great 
  • deud Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 438 W: 11 N: 534] (2540)
  • [2005-03-21 7:21]

This is for the first time i can see this little beauty! Amazing portrait! Moldova is an ex-USSR republic, but here this bird don't exist!

  • Great 
  • optic Gold Star Critiquer [C: 322 W: 0 N: 0] (0)
  • [2005-04-02 10:40]

Hi Elroyie i like a lot this image! i added in my favorites! very nice colours and sharpness, this bird is wonderfull he does'nt live in North America, thank you for sharing.

Very well composed

  • Great 
  • tjasa Gold Star Critiquer [C: 100 W: 0 N: 84] (602)
  • [2005-09-07 5:35]

waw, amazeing colours! great capture an composition! really fantastic picture!

great pic, TFS Ori

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