Saffron Finch

Shortly after arriving on the island we saw these delightful little birds. As you can see from the photo, bright yellow with a dusting of red on the head. Saffron Finches apparently originally came to Hawaii from South America.

1/320 f/5.6 ISO 320 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM +2.0x @ 385 mm Canon EOS 40D

Keahou,Hawaii

I made about 30 attempts to get an image I was happy with but too often I was ending up with a snapshot-like result. For our second week we stayed at a different location which had a second floor balcony surrounded with gardens and palms. There was a palm growing right next to our balcony and a saffron had a nest in the crown. I could see her (or him?) while in the nest but most just the eyeball. They would often rest on a frond across the way and that is where I caught this image. I used my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS with the Canon 2X Extender. This allowed a good side-on view with a background I really like.