Black Redstart

[thkn777]

Oly C-770, F=3.7, 1/500s, ISO64, 380mm (full 10x optical zoom) + 1.4 digital zoom

He (or she) was very upset when I used my scythe this morning in the garden to cut down all those precious flowers and grass the birds enjoy so much...

[geoffs]

Hi thkn777! Pretty good closeup there. There seems to be a general lack of sharpness but I think that that is probably due to the digital zoom you used to get close enough.

I'm not familiar with that particular bird. You don't have your location set in your preferences so it's tough for me to know what kind of bird I should be looking at. For starters, could you let me know what country you live in?

In the US we have a few varieties of birds named Redstarts, none of which look like this fellow.

[thkn777]

Hello geoffs and sorry for my profile - was in a rush because I got lots of questions for which cam I should choose and specific technical questions about them... I completed it a bit now

I am from Germany. We already had a look into some books and believe it's a "Hausrotschwanz" which translates to to "black redstart" according to my dictionary.

As for image quality. Yes - nothing to be very proud of, I know. Especially the digital zoom produced some blurring I'd say. As I said I am still testing the Oly C-770 and wanted to know what I can do and what not. To my own surprise these 10x Zoom/1.4 digital shots (it's a special mode where the 4mp cam produces fixed 2mp images - I guess it interpolates or something) are usable for normal printing needs up to A5 or my more common 10cm x 15cm.

Since it's 1/500s shutter speed I believe it's not "handshake" what produces the blurring, but then... I was working hard with the scythe before the shot, saw the bird, grabbed the cam and fired away... so maybe my own fault.

/waves

[thkn777]

http://www.altmuehltal.de/gunzenhaus...rotschwanz.htm

http://www.ornithologie-rlp.de/fotos...otschwanz.html

Have a look at these - I think I am pretty close with my guess. But still unsure. But my daughter (close to 7th birthday) is very curious about everything and so I enjoy getting close with a good zoom and have a detailled look WHAT that thing really is.

[geoffs]

thkn777, the links you posted certainly seem to be the same bird as the one you got a picture of. Google's English translation of those German webpages says that these birds are called House Red Tails - is that a good translation? It is a bird that took to the cities from its natural habitat once civilization appeared - interesting.

Is Magdeburg anywhere near Stuttgart? My son is in the US Army and was stationed in Stuttgart from 1993 - 2001. He visited many places in Germany and surrounding countries and also married a woman that he met in Germany.

[thkn777]

As for the translation: its more word-by-word: Haus-rot-schwanz (german) is house-red-tail (english). Thanks for the info! They seem to like my garden and come close to 1.5-2 meters when upset or in a playful mood. Nice guests after all, not too loud and I get company

As for Magdeburg: if you call nearly 600km highway close, than it's close. I attached a map with some well known cities (Berlin, Hannover, Frankfurt/Main) marked for you and a route from Magdeburg to Stuttgart. Worked near Stuttgart for some time some years ago so am familiar with that route