This is another photo I took while we were hiking around Arrowhead Provincial Park.

After a quick search online, I think this is a Black-capped Chickadee. There were a bunch of these birds gathered around a feeder on a hiking trail near some waterfalls. They move about so quickly that it was really difficult to get a picture of one sitting still.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my Rebel XT + EF 70-300mm at 300mm, ISO 100, f/8 for 1/400th of a second.

Comments

Yep, definitely a Black-capped Chickadee.  Very nice capture, I like the amount
of detail in the feathers without having the background totally blown out.  Did
you do any PS work on this or use a fill flash?

Thanks!  I did do some PS work on this one.  I used the original RAW file to
generate five TIFFs with different exposure compensations and used CS2's Merge
To HDR function to combine them.

I like this result so far, but I'm sure I
could do better if I had more time to spend on it.  For example, none of the
background is blown out in the original RAW, so I think I could definitely save
more of it if I tried.

This is by far the cutest bird picture I have ever seen! I love the background
how it is- it's a beautiful contrast to the sharp details of the bird. This
would be an amazing picture to use as source material for an oil painting. 

Thanks!  Yes, when I saw the photo for the first time, I thought it looked like
the bird was posing for a Robert Bateman painting.

Maybe
like this one.

This is a wonderful picture. Chickadees pose briefly outside my window, but as
you say they move so quickly, it is hard to get such a good look at them as
your picture provides!	I love the light and shadow, as if the bird is in the
spotlight.

That is adorable. I love chickadees! Great picture :)