Magpie . . .

My friend whom lent me the Sigma BigMa 50-500 this is taken with, needs pictures of Magpies for an oil painting he is working on. He has had no luck it would seem . . . even baiting them with dog food. Anyway I promised to 'shoot' any such foul, lol, that I came upon in my travels. I am taking the BigMa back this evening after the Superbowl, should have my Canon 100-400 in the morning.

Back to the bird at hand . . . I found a small group and this is one of the 'better' ones. Taken free hand at 500mm, 1/160 second, f 6.3.

Go Pats . . . lol.

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Very nice shot. Magpies are tough to get close to.

Yes, I can see that. I gave my best at catching them in flight as well . . . though the shutter speed is a tad low, it is the best available light shot I could get. They are good practice birds, but not of much use beyond that, for I suppose subject or filler material for paintings.

Taken with 20D and Sigma BigMa free hand.

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Really good job getting the exposure right. I like the catchlight in his eye and the background is very nice.

Definitely a nice shot.

And I thought that Chickadees and Red-Winged Blackbirds made for difficult exposures....
<shakes head at the thought of shooting a magpie>