Redpolls, while widespread in Ireland, are not frequent visitors to my back garden. So, I was delighted to see a small flock of redpolls appear in the second week in January. I managed to take this photo on the 14th as one waited patiently for it's turn at the feeder. Sunflower hearts seemed to be attracting them, and in particular the sunflower hearts in a wire meshed feeder. The redpolls tended not to hang around and did not stay on the perch for long. I chose this photo from the three I managed to take that were worth editing because of the pose of the bird, the catchlight in the eye, and the red of it's breast toned well with the red of the acer branches in the background.
This photo was taken with my 100-500 mm RF lens on maximum zoom on my R6 handheld, through my kitchen window. The open aperture of f/7.1 managed to reasonably blur the acer tree lacking in leaves during the winter. The shutter speed was 1/640 second and ISO was 800. The photo was taken just before 1.00 pm so there is some shadowing and I had to clone out a goldfinch which was further down the perch. This cloning means that the photo would not be usable in a nature or wildlife competition where cloning is not allowed.
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