For those of us without the skill or kit (me!), Cornell Labs Merlin Bird ID can do the live identification part in quite a pleasing manner on an Android phone. However, the logging and kit that is practical to leave running for 24 hours is probably beyond it.

To OP, I’d have thought better mikes would allow identification of quieter calls, and be better at avoiding misidentifying non-bird noise, so might still have value.

I’m deeply sorry - I just left it to your imaginations :)

Nice detail. Was it just to fat or stupid to move, or have you a long lens?

That’s good for what I assume is one binocular eyepiece held over a mobile phone’s camera lens.

The whole thing has something of a khaki tinge - was it just one of those days, or something that a bit of software magic might improve?

Heh, that’s the ABC of photography: Always Bring Camera!

Though these days a mobile phone can be a useful way to address ABC, it’s rarely good on birds.

It always amuses me that a Grey Wagtail has lots of yellow, but this is a fine reminder that the Yellow Wagtail has even more yellow!

As I understand it from reference books, those live in Egypt or points south or perhaps the China Seas, and dine on Elephants, so I rather dismissed that breed as a candidate!

You a quite probably right, given what I saw of the little drama (the corvids and the kites were squabbling all through the walk - alas I didn’t seen enough of a mixed group of jackdaws and crows mobbing a kite to photo it), but the photo in isolation just had me foxed.

1/1250s speed, and stabilizer on, so I doubt movement distortion, but worth the question.

Perhaps a proper Kite photo to compensate, possibly even the same bird.

Oh, very well done - and if that level of camera shake is all you have to worry about, you’re a far better photographer than I! Just a bit of a shame the file downloaded so slowly I didn’t get to the end before other things called, but that’s not on you.

Oh yes, and also of only realising in post-propressing that the shot isn’t quite as good as you hoped when you did it.

To tell you something you probably already knew, your depth of field is too short in this one, and you needed to increase the aperture or move back, so that you get the full glory of the fluffiness on the right.
Really nice subjects, though!

Compare and contrast: close to a winner’s quality!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cprg5ellr0vo

So similar to the UK’s Lesser Spotted Woodpecker! The white and black banding on the head is a bit different, and to me that seems about it.

They actually nest in trees!

This one is kinda proof of the claim, I alas don’t have any better

P.S. in case it’s not obvious, that’s the female!

Mostly accidental - in the sense that there was a lot to crop, and I felt the blossom just had to remain, for all it was not on my mind when taking the shot.

Interesting to see a technical use of photography posted here.

Indeed, this sort of thing (also taken today, but somehow doesn’t appeal as much to me)

And good tutorials you’d care to recommend that explain what they are trying to achieve? I just have a self taught process with Canon’s DPP4 on RAW format, only working on brightness, as follows:

1. Turn on any over/under-exposed markers
2. Move the left slider to the right until it reaches non-zero parts of histogram and/or get under-exposed markers, move back a “bit”
3. Move the right slider to the left, unless reaches non-zero parts, or get over exposed markers - but go further if its only sky, and you don’t care about it
4. The tricky bit, move the centre slider to the right if the picture seems “washed out” and to the left if there’s too much dark in the part of the picture you care about - this is extremely subjective

Doing this, you make greatest use of the range of tones (shades, whatever) that the end JPG can offer, and get the detailed tone changes in the zone that matters… maybe.

Using the general brightness slider achieves similar but distinct effects - you might mix and match

This sort of activity should work in any tool. You might be able to do it for selected areas or colour, but I don’t/can’t. You might be able to tweak the curve more precisely, but likewise I don’t try.

Those are the tools to play with (might also be called Gamma Adjustment), but I think in this particular case, because of those lovely areas where the sun is shining through, having the rest of the body dark (and the sky bright) works really rather well.