Backdoor Flicker Family

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
About 3 weeks ago we noticed a male Northern Flicker enlarging a hole in an old, dead tree just off our property. The top of the tree fell into our shed about 5 years ago in bad winds (thankfully minimal damage) so we left the rest for the birds and woodpeckers in particular, so it was nice to see the bird show.

(Side note: this dead stump also produces a huge crop of Chicken Of The Wood mushrooms every year - bonus!!)

When I saw the bird start working I attempted to take photographs with my D500 and 500mm from my garage, but it would bolt from the hole as soon as it saw me. So, I decided that I needed to set up a remote trigger. I used my Sigma 150-600mm Sport and a D500 body in order to get enough fps to capture wood flying, put my Vello FreeWave Plus RF trigger on with the remote set to bulb, which when the camera is on Constant High the first press starts firing and the second press stops. This got mounted on a tripod and set about 25-30 feet from the stump, and covered with a white t-shirt to keep the sun from beating on it. Depending on the weather I'll watch from either the garage (cool & windy) or the deck (otherwise) and fire when there's something worth shooting while also manning at least one other camera to catch the rest of the yard.

The male Flicker digs out the hole and if the female finds it acceptable she does the finishing and they move in, and thankfully this pair like the hole.

I've since swapped out the D500 for a D750 because I don't need to fps with the current activity, but the pair swap guarding the eggs (we've seen them mating several times) with the male doing evening thru mid-morning duty and the female doing afternoons. It'll be a couple weeks before we see babies, at which time the D500 will go back, but for now I like to have two of them with a 300mm on one and the 500mm on the other available as we're getting a lot of migrants and summer birds coming in.

Anyway, this is the setup (arrow pointing to their hole)...

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...and this is my vantage point on the deck (as you can see I could shoot from there but it would be major cropping)...

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Here are a few from the 2 weeks I've been doing this. I'm trying to be selective but I could post dozens already. I'll post more in this thread as I get stuff worth sharing. For non-bird nerds, the male Northern Flicker has a mustache and the female does not. This is the eastern variety which has a black mustache and a red 'V' or 'heart' on the back of the head. In the western US there is no color on the back of the head and the male's mustache is red. The yellow under the wings in east goes to an redish-orange in the west, Hence the eastern variety is referred to as 'Yellow-Shafted' and the western as 'Red-Shafted'.

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BackdoorArts

Senior Member
So the Flickers have been active but mainly just taking turns incubating. Sunday my wife saw one carry something out of the nest and she wasn't sure if it was a shell or something else, so yesterday afternoon I set it up again. Male and female rotated in and out and as they left they would always be carrying a poop sac (young birds excrete their poop in a sac that the parent will be able to remove from the nest; bluebirds do the same thing - I think it tends to occur in cavity nesters vs. those who nest openly in trees). So we have babies in the cavity. Probably another week or two before they start showing up at the hole.

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Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Wow! Great shots Jake. About the last shot (the poop bag), it looks to me like a tiny bird. Could they be moving them somewhere else? Or could it be one that didn't survive? I'm amazed at the quality you're getting at iso 4000. Is Topaz involved with the post processing?
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Wow! Great shots Jake. About the last shot (the poop bag), it looks to me like a tiny bird. Could they be moving them somewhere else? Or could it be one that didn't survive? I'm amazed at the quality you're getting at iso 4000. Is Topaz involved with the post processing?

I agree with Marcel. These are incredible shots, Jake.

Question concerning something you wrote elsewhere yesterday - you said you use Topaz Denoise AI before going back to Photoshop Camera RAW. Then you said, I now open it in Camera Raw Filter from within Photoshop and do all my light adjustments to the denoised image. I can take images that are -3EV from perfect exposure and bring them to life without adding noise. So does that mean you can raise your exposure +3 stops in Camera RAW without adding any additional noise? Or am I not understanding this correctly? :confused:

Editing my post to add the link to Jake's great info he wrote yesterday about Topaz.

https://nikonites.com/photography-q-and-a/44488-ultra-sharp-wildlife-pics-6.html#post735851
 
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BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Wow! Great shots Jake. About the last shot (the poop bag), it looks to me like a tiny bird. Could they be moving them somewhere else? Or could it be one that didn't survive? I'm amazed at the quality you're getting at iso 4000. Is Topaz involved with the post processing?

Thanks Marcel & Danno. Marcel, definitely not a small bird. It's the sac with some wood chips stuck to it from the bottom of the cavity. The babies stay in there for about 2-3 weeks and this is just house cleaning. It's pretty big, so they might be further along than I'd thought. When big enough they cling to the sides, and eventually they'll be popping their heads out of the 14-18" deep cavity to be fed. Those are the shots I'm waiting for.

And as I've been preaching, these were all done with what has become my go to post processing stream: Crop in Lightroom and send to Photoshop, Topaz Denoise AI, Camera Raw Filter, Topaz Adjust AI, mask, dodge, burn, blur as needed, save, resize and export.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I agree with Marcel. These are incredible shots, Jake.

Question concerning something you wrote elsewhere yesterday - you said you use Topaz Denoise AI before going back to Photoshop Camera RAW. Then you said, I now open it in Camera Raw Filter from within Photoshop and do all my light adjustments to the denoised image. I can take images that are -3EV from perfect exposure and bring them to life without adding noise. So does that mean you can raise your exposure +3 stops in Camera RAW without adding any additional noise? Or am I not understanding this correctly? :confused:

Camera Raw only gets invoked as the Develop module in Lightroom or with opening a RAW file in Photoshop. In these situations the only difference between the interface and the Camera Raw Filter in the Ps Filter menu are available camera profiles (which is why I set that in Lightroom - almost always Neutral) and White Balance using temperatures vs. a +/- value from the starting point (Note: I may also adjust WB in Lr). So the Camera Raw Filter is what I'm using and it gets done after Denoise.

Easiest way for you to see the lack of noise is to see the Fox shot in this post: https://nikonites.com/wild-life/44272-red-fox-no-not-fred-sanford.html#post729553

I invoked Denoise on the dark image and then brightened it. When it's that severe Denoise can add artifacts, so I would have to go back and try again occasionally if I saw them, or just clone them out.
 
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BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Yesterday for the first time the young'uns made their way to the hole. Not a feather on their heads so I'm thinking I'll have about 7-10 days of this before they leave. Photos are a bit oversmoothed from Denoise. Posted elsewhere that the D500 wasn't metering correctly with the remote. I'm thinking it's BBF related. These were 2 stops underexposed and I had the metering set for +0.7EV. No idea.

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BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Why did this thread end where it did, Jake. What did I miss?

WM

The fact that time is sometimes shorter than memories. ;) I have photos elsewhere but the size restriction here requires that I export a set specifically for this site, which is more than a little PITA when you have a bunch. I'll try and update it when I have a moment.
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
The fact that time is sometimes shorter than memories. ;) I have photos elsewhere but the size restriction here requires that I export a set specifically for this site, which is more than a little PITA when you have a bunch. I'll try and update it when I have a moment.

Roger that, Jake! I find myself often ready to post images that I posted earlier.

I think I had another point to state about this matter, but can't remember what is was... :p Oh, yeah. I look forward to seeing those images when you post them.

WM
 
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