Backlighting and the resulting halo effect was a phenomenal discovery, such as the beak profile and individual hairs, now curious if more effective in B&W, which opens new creative doors to explore.
The blurred background colors which match the green and magenta plant helped isolate and highlight this lesser goldfinch. Appreciated the catch light as well.
I chose the Black-crowned Night Heron, as I have seen all summer by a local canal. Although this species is described as more dormant during the day, I was surprised at how close I could (carefully) approach without creating a disturbance. A solitary tree growing horizontally on the canal bank provided wonderful eye-level contact and some opportunity for detailed portraiture-like shots in full daylight.