Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Bananaquits

Bananaquits

Original - two bananaquits on a branch

Reason

captivating action shot of this bird species, sharp high-res photo with vivid colors and excellent composition

Articles this image appears in

Bananaquit, List of birds of Costa Rica, List of birds of Brazil, List of birds of Montserrat, List of birds of Panama, List of birds of Trinidad and Tobago

Creator

flickr user lbojarczuk (http://flickr.com/photos/7599082@N08/542690999) cc-by-sa

• Support as nominator --—Steven G. Johnson (talk) 23:48, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
• Support. Love it! --Eustress (talk) 02:26, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
• Support. Has clarity, good composition, and wow. Sasata (talk) 03:37, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
• Comment There is something a bit odd going on with this image. Firstly, the studio lighting, the camera is set at F11, 1/500th (max sync speed), and there are what appear to be three softboxes relatively close to the birds going from the catchlights. Secondly, I highly doubt the background is natural, it far to close to uniform brightness/colour for anything natural, especially at F11, I'd say the background is a studio backdrop. Thirdly, the focal length of 300mm is pretty short, the photographer would have to be extremely close to take the shot (they are 11cm long). I see two possibilities, either the photographer has setup a studio outside his/her bird feeder (its been done before) or the birds are stuffed and "rigged" for the shot (slightly supported by the very loose grip of the left bird).Noodle snacks (talk) 11:08, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
  • Going by the rest of his photos, he takes them in the wild with a feeder, but this is the third photo in his stream, so it might be an exception. Some museums have displays like this, but I'm having a hard time believing that the feathers would be in such good order on a dead bird. Papa Lima Whiskey (talk) 19:54, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
    • I work sometimes with museum skins and mounts, and if those were mounts they would be exceptional. In particular the eye of the lower one looks damp, the skin around the mouth means if they are mounts they are really really fresh, and the facial expression on the top one would be really difficult to get on a skin. I wouldn't call myself an expert but I would be exceptionally surprised if these were anything other than alive. Sabine's Sunbird talk 01:11, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
      • There's quite a long string of metadata. The poses are engaging, and appear natural. but it does appear to be slightly oversharpened. Could the original photographer be persuaded to release an unedited version? Durova^Charge! 18:58, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
• Support This is a lovely photograph. Pastor Theo (talk) 23:59, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Promoted File:Bananaquits.jpg MER-C 07:04, 6 February 2009 (UTC)