Another ID please- with apologies

[Nathaniel]

Spinney Reserve 17th April 2016 022 by Nathaniel Ramanaden, on Flickr

Spinney Reserve 17th April 2016 021 by Nathaniel Ramanaden, on Flickr

Spinney Reserve 17th April 2016 020 by Nathaniel Ramanaden, on Flickr

[the black fox]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

looks like a chaffinch nat ,your colours on these birds are very lacklustre making i.d hard .i would have been tempted to use a flash or pop up flash under those conditions (knowing what the spinnies is like as well)

[Columbarius]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

I'd agree with Jeff, female chaffinch.

[Nathaniel]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

Thanks Jeff and Russell. Did not think about the pop up flash.

[Stan]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

Nat these ID's are all very common birds so just get a copy of the Collins Bird Guide and you will be able to ID them yourself

These as with most of the shots you have posted recently are flat and lacking "oomph", pop up flash may help but if you are serious about shooting these birds then you will have to come to terms with shooting RAW and do a lot more post production. I had a quick look at one of these and bearing in mind it is only a small jpeg, I was able by a few quick tweaks of the temperature exposure, contrast, vibrance etc to make it pop a bit more - just imagine what could be done with a full size RAW

stan

[Nathaniel]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

Thanks Stan. I have both the Collins and RSPB bird books but still find it difficult, at times, to ID. The colours sometimes don't match!

Re the Oomph factor, I like the rather subdued images as they don't hit the eye. A personal choice I suppose. Quite a few on flickr appear to like my pictures.

[Columbarius]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

Nat, have you tried the online RSPB Bird Identifier. You type in obvious characteristics & it shows possible birds. Photos too. Try it on the Chaffinch. It works.

Alternatively if you have an Android phone there's a great app Birds of Britain which has lots of photos to check once you've narrowed down the ID to 2 or 3 choices.

[antoeknee]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

Thanks Stan. I have both the Collins and RSPB bird books but still find it difficult, at times, to ID. The colours sometimes don't match!

Unfortunately Nat bird plumage can vary a lot. Particularly when birds are moulting.

Quite a lot of guides cover Europe as well and include quite a few birds that are never/seldom seen in the UK. I'd suggest looking at some common birds that you already know the identity of and refer to the description the guide. This might help you notice important features of birds you don't know. Plumage is only one key to identity, things like beak shape/size/length, leg colour, etc will also help.

As I said before also look at the distribution maps as these will help a lot too.

[Nathaniel]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

Many thanks Russell and Ant. Will certainly try the on line guide and the maps. Certainly worth a try.

[davcoll]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

Hi Nat , not sure which mobile os you use but for iOS I have 2 apps . One is simply a bird guide the other is called Chirp which is a guide to bird song ,very useful as a starting point.

All the best
Dave

[Nathaniel]

Re: Another ID please- with apologies

Thanks Dave. I use a Doro mobile. It's got all the apps etc.