The Silent Roller Photo

Photographer’s Note

The lilac-breasted roller is one of the most beuatiful looking birds in Africa - and one of the most awful sounding. Imagine a file scraped across a rusty saw and you'll get the idea. So even though I caught this fellow with his beak open, I did not get an audio recording.

Technical: Crop to vertical; Noiseware to cut noise in the sky (the D70 can be noisy even at low ISO).

Matthew-Watt has marked this note useful

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Matthew-Watt (4471) 2007-12-26 16:52

Hello Dan,

A lively shot of this raucous caller! The unusual foliage provides a good contrast with the blue sky and breaks up the lower half of the photo. Sharpness is good, but I might consider bringing it up another notch to clearly define the bird's outline. The soft colours of the bird’s plumage certainly give the photo plenty of character.

Australia is home to perhaps the most colourful of all birds, the Rainbow Lorikeet. It is extremely noisy with its screeches and chattering. White Cockatoos have another 'unpleasant' screeching call. Funnily enough, some of the most beautiful singers are dull brown and unimpressive. Thanks for the post.

Matt