India Birds: Kutch Gujarat: Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark

Continuing from the previous post, here are a few pics of the Ashy crowned Sparrow Lark from Kutch Gujarat India.

C& C always welcome.

-- Vivek

This is a female:



This is a male:

Vivek,

What is the nature of this location? I see you used Canon, but how close did you get and with what? These are a handsome set of birds, are they a pair? The feathers have a lot of fine detail to be shown. These are enticing images to get lost in!

Thanks for sharing.

Asher

Asher

This is a remote desert area in the central western India (north north west of Mumbai). The area is mostly brush and is one of the dryest regions in the country.

I am enclosing the GoogleMaps link below.

All photos are taken using a 500/4 IS lens using Canon 1D MarkIII (sometimes with the 1.4X converter). In these photos, the birds were about 10-15 feet away (used a small ledge as a blind).

These birds are endemic to the region and there were many pairs. I have many many images from the trip and just recently started posting these to my website.

Location of Kutch: Bhuj is the largest town; A powerful earthquake struck this place in not too distant past (2001 I think).

http://maps.google.com/maps/empw?url=http:%2F%2Fmaps.google.com%2F%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ll%3D23.241346,69.477539%26spn%3D1.155838,1.768799%26z%3D9%26output%3Dembed%26s%3DAARTsJqzARj-Z8VnW5pkPMLMmZbqrJcYpw&hl=en&gl=us

Nice images, Vivek, on hard to capture small birds!

To my eye, they might benefit from tweaking of levels, to give them a bit more "pop" - they seem a little low in contrast.

(I've been busy lately - replacing a crashed Desktop, and then a 10-day trip to Brazil! Just starting to get back into the swing of things.)

Vivek,
Thanks for the superb closeup of these birds. I think these are common in other parts too; I see them here in Hyderabad, though never knew the name. Your knowledge of birds is also a great benefit to guys like me.

I slightly disagree with Don Cohen's opinion of tweaking the images - I prefer them as they are, especially nature pics, with minimal post-processing. Just my perception though..

regi.