These friendly little birds are always waiting for us at the Reiffel Bird sanctuary - or rather waiting for a little handout. They accept the food that can be bought at the entrance to the site but really prefer sunflower seeds. As often as not, they take the offering and pound it into holes in the nearby trees for snacking when the humans have their workdays.
It is a real joy for children when these little birds fly onto their outstretched hands to select a plump seed.
Although we rarely manipulate our images other than for contrast, this image was slightly modified so that there would be a "catch-light" in the eye of the bird. Here is a section of the original image:
You can see that the small radius
of this bird's eye has just a little catch-light - a reflection
of the sun. When this image is reduced for the webite, the catch-light
disappears entirely. So we used photoshop to make a larger catch-light
that is still seen at reduced size.
The camera recorded the following information in the original image file:
File name :DSC_4608.NEF File size :7.7MB (8085778 bytes) Date taken :Fri, 10 Jan, 2003 11:57:07 AM Image size :3008 x 1960 Resolution :300 x 300 dpi Number of bits :12 bits/channel Protection :Off Camera ID :N/A Camera :NIKON D1X Quality mode :HI (5.4M Raw Uncompressed) Metering mode :Matrix Exposure mode :Programmed auto Speed light :Off Focal length :220.0 mm Shutter speed :1/400 seconds Aperture :F10.0 Exposure compensation :-0.7 EV White Balance :Direct sunlight Lens :80-400 mm F4.5-F5.6 Flash sync mode :N/A Exposure difference :0.0 EV Flexible program :No Sensitivity :ISO320 Sharpening :None Image Type :Color Color Mode :Mode 2 (Adobe RGB) Hue adjustment :3 Saturation Control :N/A Tone compensation :Less contrast Latitude(GPS) :N/A Longitude(GPS) :N/A Altitude(GPS) :N/A