Story of the Image
This bird is called a Squirrel Cuckoo and is widely distributed in its Latin American range . Due to their loud, distinct calls and constant movement, they can be easily spotted on treetops but are almost always a nightmare to photograph. On this occasion, I was taking pictures of some tanagers in Ecuador’s Mashpi Amagusa Rainforest Preserve. Suddenly, I heard scratching and movements in a tree behind me. The Squirrel Cuckoo is a large bird, and while moving from one branch to another, it brushed leaves and twigs. This is what caught my attention.
Gear/ Preparing the Scene
I always keep my camera handy as nature photography is one of its most unpredictable forms. On this occasion I was equipped with my Canon 5d Mark IV and trusty 600mm f/4 lens.
It took me a long time to locate the bird and, even when I did, it was not at a favorable location for photography . As the bird was hiding behind branches and leaves. Patience was key here as I knew it was early in the morning and the bird was looking for food, which in most cases would be large insects .
Composing The Shot
The dense undergrowth made it difficult to focus on the subject. When I did, the bird was too fast and I would miss it every time. I got lucky when the cuckoo managed to grab a grasshopper, allowing me a split second to get the shot. As in most wildlife images, there’s a lot of wait to capture one moment that lasts less than a second. Even with a fifteen frames per second camera, I managed to get exactly three sharp shots.
Initial camera raw edits
There was a lot to be done on this image as it was shot in very unfavorable lighting conditions. A lot of details had to be recovered. Please see the below image for reference.
As you can see, changes made to the Brightness, Contrast, and Levels the image has already transformed into something else.
The Curve Adjustment layer gave me additional opportunity to fix the light. I increased the highlights and lights by +13 points each.
The image was now ready to be edited.
The first step was to run a round of shadow highlights to bring up the details from the dark areas, and reduce some light in the bright ones. As you can see, I used similar amount of Shadow and Highlights to recover details on both sides of the spectrum.
Now I ran Levels from the adjustment layers to add contrast and depth. In the presets, I chose to increase Contrast +2.
Next, I added more Brightness and Contrast to get the image closer to what I perceived it to be.
Next, I wanted more impact on those big red eyes. I selected them using the Quick Selection tool and added Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation.
You can clearly see the impact in the eyes.
All that is left now is to save it to the right profile.
For web prints I use sRGB. For physical prints, I use Adobe RGB The final step is to save it as a JPEG at the highest resolution.
About The Bird
This large and rusty colored Cuckoo with a strikingly long tail can be spotted in tropical lowlands, wooded and forest habitats. They are a sight to behold when flying past. It is hard to find them foraging as they glide and hop between trees to feed on invertebrates. They mark their presence with a loud ‘kip! kip! weeuu’ calls and a whistling ‘wheep wheep’ song.
