Brown-hooded Parrot

Image # 1D4_00072

Rancho Naturalista, Tortuguero, Costa Rica

Canon 600L/f4 IS

ISO 400, f/4, 1/640 second

Manual Exposure, 550EX at + 2/3 EV

Gitzo 1329/Arca Swiss B1/Wimberley Sidekick

Walking along the road near Rancho Naturalista, Marco spotted this Brown-hooded Parrot way off in the distance, far past where we could reasonably photograph it.  We were hoping it might come closer, since it was a new species for all of us, and all of a sudden, it flew from its perch, and landed in some trees right in front of us - perhaps only 30 feet away!  The light was very poor - bright white overcast as the background, with the bird in shadows, so I had to use Flash to give it any color at all.  I also decreased exposure to avoid a completely bright white background.  I tried to edit it to minimize the inevitable "flashed" appearance of such a shot, but there's only so much that this can do.