Birdtography

This image of a tufted titmouse may appear natural, and in a way, it is. While the perch is real, the setup is completely staged. I found an interesting dead branch from a tree in my backyard and thought it would make a pleasing perch for bird photography. However, how can I entice a bird to pose on it? While observing the birds at my feeder, I’ve noticed that many of them tend to perch nearby before approaching the feeder. In the case of this image, I placed a few sunflower seeds under the perch, hoping to capture a photograph of them on the perch. While setting up the perch, I focused on choosing a location with a clean background. Oh, and don’t forget about the late evening sunlight shining from over my left shoulder.
There is no AI in this image; it’s all real—well, sort of.

See a high-res image on my flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/baw26/54355494655/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/