Monochromatic beauties

This week's SMAP is stripped from colours: Birds in black and white is the theme!

Birds colours are, more often than not, the reason why they're admired. Nevertheless, there's beauty in a black and white photo. Changes the mood a little bit, doesn't it? And from my experiences, our winged friends look great on monochrome too!

^{Changeable hawk-eagle - Nisaetus cirrhatus}

Up in the tree where she was, the scouting look looks even more dramatic without the usual colours. Or maybe it's the hunting vibe that does it.

Another hunter corroborates this:

^{Common kestrel - Falco tinnunculus}

This female was almost motionless when I clicked; not often that I'm able to get this sharp images in flight.

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What about non hunting birds? Do they look good without their usual colours?

^{Tufted duck - Aythya fuligula, male}

Male tufted ducks are naturally monochromatic, since they are all black with white flanks; but they do have an amazing golden eye!

Do prefer to see the hunters in b&w, since the difference here is not that notorious. And did tried with a smaller and more familiar species too:

^{Common house sparrow - Passer domesticus, male}

Seems like a photo my granparents could have on the living room in their house! :) But no, this little guy was chirping just a couple years ago somewhere in Alentejo, in full colour.

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^{Yellow legged gull - Larus michahellis}

To wrap it up, the black, white and grey feathers of a yellow legged gull... this time with a monochromatic landscape to match. Oh well, only removed the yellow from the legs and beak, so there's not much room to complain here! Right, Ms. gull? 😁

Have a great week everyone!

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