![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lazuli-bunting-9815b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"\/lazuli-bunting-9815b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nRarely do I find a bird that cooperates this much with the photographer, to the point of altering and improving the setting himself.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Just over three years ago I found this male Lazuli Bunting perched completely out in the open on a serviceberry branch in the Wasatch Mountains. My heart skipped a beat because I think the males of this species are among our most beautiful songbirds and I rarely (as in almost never) get opportunities with them in breeding colors when they’re out in the open with clean backgrounds.<\/p>\n To me this photo looks like it could be a setup. I can assure you, it isn’t.<\/p>\n Most of the time he was looking to his right, with the tallest vertical stem in that direction directly in front of his face, so I hoped he’d eventually look to his left to provide a composition I’d like much better. It took a while but eventually he did, but only for long enough for me to get two photos. This is one of them. The other one isn’t quite as sharp.<\/p>\n And he even held that leaf down and out of the way with his left foot, the only leaf that would have significantly blocked our view of part of him.<\/p>\n Good bird.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rarely do I find a bird that cooperates this much with the photographer, to the point of altering and improving the setting himself.<\/p>\n