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Familiar chat


Familiar chat
Photo Information
Copyright: Peter Thomas (FunkyMunky) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 146 W: 0 N: 608] (3154)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2011-05-20
Categories: Birds
Camera: Canon EOS 450D, Sigma DG 150-500 mm APO HSM OS
Exposure: f/6.3, 1/200 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Date Submitted: 2011-05-23 19:42
Viewed: 3552
Points: 24
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
We have just returned from a visit to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. I will be posting some pictures I took there over the next week or so. This is one of my fav pics of the visit.

The Familiar Chat, Cercomela familiaris, is a small passerine bird of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is a common resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara in rocky and mountainous habitat and around human habitation.
[edit]Description

The Familiar Chat is a dumpy short-tailed bird 14-15 cm long. The adult’s upperparts are dark brown, and the face sides behind the eye are orange. The underparts vary from off-white to pale grey-brown, and the rump and outer tail feathers are orange. The central tail feathers are dark brown. The short straight bill and the legs and feet are black. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile is dark brown above and buff below, heavily marked with buff on the upperparts, and scaly on the breast.
The Familiar Chat has a soft "shek-shek" alarm call. The song is a warbling trill.
[edit]Behaviour

The Familiar Chat builds a cup-shaped nest of hair, wool, feathers or soft plant material on a base of coarse vegetation. It is constructed in a hole in the ground, a rock face or building. It will use nest boxes or a disused Sociable Weaver nest. It normally nests from July to April, but will breed at any time when conditions are right, especially in the more arid areas.
The Familiar Chat is typically seen sitting on a rock, or hopping on bare patches of soil. It has a habit of flicking its wings once or twice every time it moves. It is seen in small family groups of up to five birds, and is invariably tame and approachable. It eats insects, fruit, animal fat and household or farmyard scraps.
The Afrikaans name for this species "spekvreter" means "fat-eater", and comes from the fact that it developed the habit of feeding on the lard used to grease wagon axles by the voortrekkers.
bungbing, PaulLees, Mamagolo2, maaciejka, Pitoncle has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • siggi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3097 W: 109 N: 12399] (52850)
  • [2011-05-23 22:46]

Hello Peter.
Very nice photo of this Familiar Chat with fine details, good sharpness and natural colours. Also a good POV and composition. Well done.Best regards Siggi

Hello Peter,
Very nice capture of this bird, very good sharpness details, great natural colours and very well managed exposure,
Thanks for sharing and have a nice day,
Best Regards,
Bungbing.

  • Great 
  • nagraj Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1618 W: 106 N: 3208] (15166)
  • [2011-05-23 23:25]

Hi,
Fine portrait with beautiful back lighting. tfs.
nagraj.v

beautiful bird portrait, TFS Ori

Ciao Peter, great capture of lovely owl on a beautiful lighting BG, splendid sharpness, wonderful natural colors and fine details, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio

Hi Peter,

Wow what a beauty you have here my friend, Great Sharpness with fabulous details, love the pastel colours with great effect, impressive exposure/white balance control and a lovely natural highlighted eye, great stuff here!.
Congratulations Peter on a super picture,
Best Regards,

Pauly.

Lovely capture Peter Thomas! Brilliant clarity under fantastic light! Lovely pose of the Familiar Chat and fine noise free background!In the presented workshop I was hoping to improve the ratio between the highlights and the mid tones, however this should be done with the original and not with the reduced image, because as you can see this minor changes bring some unwanted noise! Your version is truly close to perfection, I think in regards to white balance! Hope to see more images from the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park!
Regards,
George Veltchev

Hi Peter,
You lucky thing!! I'm glad you enjoyed your trip and this is a beautiful image of the Chat. Very well done my friend.
Regards
Natley

  • Great 
  • PeterZ Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5137 W: 166 N: 13121] (49139)
  • [2011-05-24 3:25]

Hello Peter,
Beautiful photo of this special bird. Good sharpness, details and natural colours in this difficult backlight. Taken from a superb POV in a nice pose. Excellent blurred BG and composition.
Regards,
Peter

  • Great 
  • lousat Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 6595 W: 89 N: 15659] (65489)
  • [2011-05-24 8:04]

Hi Peter,beautiful pose,magnificent light balance and great sharpness too,a very professional portrait,i like it!Thanks for share,have a nice evening,Luciano.

Hi Peter,
nice photo of this bird. Very good point of view. Nice natural colours and details.
Thanks for sharing,
Maciek

Bonjour Peter,
La lumière me parait un peu trop forte sur l'arrière plan mais le sujet est tout de même relativement bien mis en valeur dans une belle attitude et sous une bonne profondeur de champ.
A bientôt sur TN pour de nouvelles aventures.
Gérard

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