![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/green-tailed-towhee-0502-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"green-tailed-towhee-0502-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nYesterday when I posted a slightly flawed photo of a Red-tailed Hawk readers encouraged me to “continue to give your \u2018not quite perfect\u2019 photographs the benefit of the doubt because of all the joy they bring.”<\/p>\n
OK folks. Another one, by request.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/8, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I encountered this Green-tailed Towhee in the mountains twelve days ago. I’ve been stalking them for several weeks now but they’re one of the most secretive and elusive songbirds in North America (to the point that very little is known about their life history and ecology) so all of my attempts to get close enough for detailed photos were foiled.<\/p>\n Until this bird came in almost too close. Close enough that I thought he was a little too tight in the frame vertically so I removed my teleconverter to give me sufficient wiggle room for a potential takeoff shot. I’m sure the reason he felt so brave was the same reason I’m frustrated with the photo – all those busy twigs in the frame. Birds usually feel less threatened when they have obstructions, often twigs or branches, between them and any potential danger so he felt plenty safe enough..<\/p>\n The twig I find most aggravating is the one going across his breast because at first glance it always looks like the shadow of a twig to me instead of the actual twig that it is. I see no particular logic explaining why a shadow would bother me more than having the actual object in front of the bird but it does. Makes no sense to me – it seems like it should be the other way around.<\/p>\n So, without encouragement from my readers to occasionally post ‘not quite perfect photos’ this one would never have seen the light of day, even though I enjoy it personally.<\/p>\n