Sits on an old gum tree! What a sweet bird!
JuneBug

nicely detailed capture - muted colours work really well too. well done.

Another birdie for my growing collection..Nice photo.. Not a thing worng with a little editing..

what a gorgeous birdie.. i agree with morwyn, great job with the editing the background.. the blur bring out the focus on this beautiful little animal.. i believe it's even better this way :)
tremendous details as well, the textures are very nice and the image has a great clarity. btw, i love its haircut :D

thank you for sharing it with us! have a nice day :)

Hello Paul...what a lovely capture of this photo! I have never seen one of these tiny birdies...now i know what they look like. I wonder why it has such a HUGE beak for such a small bird...he looks almost warped with it..I think the bg is fine....I love the colours this bird has...nice job Paul!! bravooo on that one.

Very very beautiful picture!!!

never seen the bird, or the plant before. Aside from the newness of them both, it's also an amazing capture. So crisp and well framed. I wish only that the sound came with it! Quiet

I was thinking like ::Quiet, too bad a WAV file isn't attached here. He's cute but also tough and solid looking.

It's an Aussie bird in the Kingfisher family. The beak is used for catching lizards and small snakes and they whack them against the tree until stunned or dead before they gobble them up. My Aunt had one that used to eat her dog's food and scare them off.
Great shot.

...eating all the gumdrops he can eat. laugh kooaburra, laugh kookaburra, save some there for me..." Just finishing June's song about this bird. I learned that song in Girl Scouts & never imagined that I would be 'chatting' in 2005 with someone on the computer about it! :)....the lighting is great on this Paul. What a capture! Thanks

Your editing does indeed add to the clarity of the bird. Outstanding shot, Paul.

Wonderful capture of a beautiful bird...as always...Excellent!

whoa that blows me away! so sharp and clear! awesome shot.

Paul, this is a great image. Composition, light, focusing, ... Excellent! :-)

Great image, Paul. Now I have this song going through my head, "Kiikaburra sits in the old gum tree..." :)

That sort of editing is called artistic licence Paul, so there’s nothing to forgive. It’s a beautiful photo. Did you know that they can become tame enough to eat out of your hand?

Hi Paul, Great photo of a beautiful bird. Brings back memories of the years I lived in Australia. I always enjoyed listening to their characteristic laughter. They're great fisherman too.
Gr, Fred

Yes, and they're great for scouting out gumdrops too... Nice capture! The blurring around it really enhances the bird as the part of the photo on which to focus.

Wow, the clarity is so... clear!! :)))))))) AWESOME!!

Great photo of a rare and interesting species of bird!

Nice one, havent seen one before!

These type of birds never shut up! :) I've seen them so many times, great shot and great clarity/focus. Nicely done.

Hello Paul....What a nice shot...I love how you have the bird so much in focus and the way the background is defocused...Good stuff Paul...All the best...Mick.

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree..merry merry king of the woodland he, laugh kookaburra laugh,gay your life must be. lol just had to say that..still remember the song from grade school and believe it or not..never saw one before...and what a great job you did...thank-you! i too wish the sound came with it.

Definetely one of my favourite birds. While I was camping at Wilson's Promontory these birds flew in very small groups to each tree around the campsite doing there deafening, insane cackle. To make matters worse it was about 5 AM. I Can't think of a bird with a more unerving call, you could swear they were laughing at you hiking up the hills.

This is a fantastic photo and it is a shame you cant attach sound to it. maybe somewhere on the internet you could find a link to a .wav file with their call recorded. Thanks for sharing.

What a cutie! Great capture.

Nice shot .... Well done ..

Super capture Paul! Your editing turned out well. Such a fine looking bird - wonderful details of his lovely soft appearing feathers, long beak, bright eye and cute birdie feet :) He appears quite happy on that curved limb. Excellent lighting on him , and he's well set against the blurred background. He is the main attraction here. Thanks for introducing this sweet lil guy :^>

Forgive you? I think blurring out ugly netting was a great idea :) Wonderful clarity and detail on this Kookaburra (what cool birds! with an equally cool name!)Although it looks like in the post work you may have darkened the background lighting a bit? and he appears to "glow" a little so maybe darkening him or lightening the background might make him "belong" a bit better? Either way~ MUCH better than an ugly net, lol :) and a great capture of him too!