Wild Bird Trust photographers of the week

Another week with a picture in Wild Bird Trust Top 25. This time it’s a picture of a European Roller that I took in Hungary on my workshop there. The Roller was one of the reasons I wanted to travel to Hungary to photo the wild birds there.

It is a massive bird, more powerful than you think. It is even bigger than the Crow we have here in Sweden. Still I think it’s a beautiful bird with the nice blue color and the intelligent eye that you can see in my picture.

The picture is what I would call a portrait but you have elements in the picture that makes it a little bit more interesting for me.

First you have the eye contact. It is an important element in this type of picture. I like the reflection from the sun but also the nice brownish color of the eye. It gives life to the picture.

Second you have the feathers. It is like patches on the side of the bird. It give an interesting texture to the bird that I haven´t seen that many times.

Third is the light that isn´t uniformly over the bird. It brings a little drama to the scene.

And last the open beak and the raised toe. It gives a little extra life to the bird.

It is a good portrait of a beautiful wild bird but I would have liked the background to be a little less messy. This wasn´t to be as the Roller nest box wasn´t in a optimal position for photography as I sat in a Tower hide at a greater height than the nest box. This gave me few opportunities to work for a better background.

Still I didn´t get the photo I sought after. I wanted some good flight shots but that wheren´t the easiest as I couldn´t track the birds in a good way before they appeared before the Tower hide. There were an opening 10 meter in width but also lots of trees on either side of the opening that made it hard to see where the birds where.

Now I think in a positive manner and can happily go back to Hungary to search for my European Roller picture.