Bird Weekly – Photo Challenge – Birds Using Selective Color

Posted on May 28, 2021 by

57 Comments

Welcome to Week #49 of the Bird Weekly Photo Challenge. Week #49 challenge is birds using selective color with most of the photo being monochrome, black and white or sepia tone. Your choice of birds.

The feature image is a Laughing Gull approaching closer as we ate our picnic lunch on the beach at Little Talbot Island State Park. We don’t feed them, but if a chip blows out of our hands from the wind, we don’t rush to grab it from the sand.

Over the past week, I have shared some tutorials on how to perform selective colors in your photos using three different programs. I shared CorelPaint Pro 2021, Adobe Photoshop 2021 and Cee Nuener’s tutorials using Adobe Camera Raw. If you missed them and want to find out more, click on the following links:

There are many programs, some free and many mobile apps for you to use on your smart phones. I didn’t explore those options this time around, but maybe in the future. If you have a favorite and want to share, I would be up for discussing it for the next go round. We will be doing this again in the near future.

Black-crowned Night Heron

I thought I would leave my Black-crowned Night Heron in for this challenge. This is one of my all-time favorite photos and he has gotten around the blog a time or two.

Tricolored Heron

Tri-colored Heron with the bright blue bill and red eye in selective color. These are breeding colors for this bird.

An adult Tricolored Heron’s face and beak will turn bright blue during the breeding season.

American Oystercatcher

I selected the reddish-orange bill and eye for the selective color on this American Oystercatcher that is otherwise black and white.

The American Oystercatcher stands out even when I don’t use selective color. His red-yellow eyes and bright red-orange bill make this an easy bird to identify.

American Avocets

Two breeding American Avocets in the mudflats at Henderson Birding Preserve near Las Vegas, Nevada.

The graceful American Avocet is a black and white bird with a grayish head in non-breeding plumage. These two were breeding adults with the rusty head and neck.

Domestic Goose

Blue-eyed domestic goose seen at Floyd Lambs Park near Las Vegas, Nevada.

Have you ever seen a blue eyed goose? I hadn’t until I saw this beauty at Floyd Lamb Park located near Las Vegas, Nevada. This domestic goose was not mean tempered like some domestic breeds.

Mallard

Mallard with his green head, yellow bill and orange legs walking around in the grass.

Male Mallards have so many beautiful colors. His bluish purple side tail feathers were tucked in or I would have added that color back in with the yellow, green and orange legs.

Domestic Muscovy Duck

The red warty looking face of this domestic Muscovy Duck stands out against its black and white body.

With a face only a mother could love, this domestic Muscovy Duck lives at the cemetery with some other domestic geese, Mottled Ducks and Mallards.

White Ibis

The White Ibis has a downward curved bill. The bill and face is reddish orange and this one was brighter because it was in breeding plumage.

White Ibises have this orange-red curved bill, but this one had a deeper red. This was one of two parents with one young nearby.

Verdin

Verdins are small grayish birds with a bright yellow patch on the head and a chestnut shoulder patch (not visible in this photo). I gave you a comparison for this one. He stands out either way. These are desert birds found in the Southwestern part of the United States.

Hooded Mergansers

Two male Hooded Mergansers swimming along. Their yellow eyes stand out from a crowd.

These two male Hooded Mergansers had several females around them. I cropped the brown feathered girls out of the photo. The males have the striking yellow eyes and the breeding females have a cinnamon colored eye.

Turkey Vulture

The Turkey Vulture has a red head as opposed to the Black Vulture who has a black head.

Imagine if the Muscovy Duck and the Turkey Vulture mated….Okay maybe not! This redhead is nature’s vacuum cleaner. These birds are graceful in the sky and clunky on the ground, but they make the most of cleaning up roadkill.

Roseate Spoonbill

The Roseate Spoonbill has pink feathers that stand out against their white feathers.

The Roseate Spoonbill is one of six species of spoonbills in the world and the only one found in the Americas. Their feathers turn pink from eating crustaceans and other aquatic invertebrates. The pigments in those food sources is called carotenoids.

Next time…Week #50 – Two or more bird species in one photograph. (6/4/21)

Bird Weekly Challenge Badge.

Category: birds, Birds Weekly Photo Challenge, nature, photo challenge, photography, reflection, travel, Uncategorized, water, wildlifeTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

57 Comments on “Bird Weekly – Photo Challenge – Birds Using Selective Color”

  5. Pingback: Bird Weekly – Photo Challenge – Birds Using Selective Color – Cee's Photo Challenges

    • Thanks Cee! The eyes get me everytime. This was so much fun especially after the stress of the week. I may be doing this on a semi-regular basis. 🙂

      Like

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  24. It took me a while (this is fiddly work!) but I’ve finally got something to share with you: https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/gallery-playing-with-a-selective-colour-technique/ There aren’t nearly as many photos as you have but I hope you like it. I’ve really appreciated being pushed by this challenge to learn how to do this. Your Photoshop instructions were very clear and I found I could follow them almost to the letter in Elements 🙂 As I say in my post, I’m in two minds as to whether I like the finished results as much as I thought I would, although I have to say yours are very effective. Perhaps I’ve just been peering at mine too closely for too long!

    Liked by 1 person

    • I think you are too hard on yourself. Your images turned out beautifully! Plus, the more you practice, the better you get. However, I would have never known this was the first time by looking at these photos. Hope you keep practicing and google other ways to do this for Photoshop Elements. There is always more than one way. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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