Truly one of my favourite little Canadian birds, I spotted this guy on a shrub not far from the house. I haven't been shooting much recently due to weather and lack of inspiration, and this encounter was much appreciated.
At first he was a bit cautious, but not really timid. Then he surprised me, flying from the shrub, almost directly at me, and landing on a branch about 6 feet away, right at eye level.
I watched him doing his thing for awhile, rapidly stripping bark from the branch.
And, got a really good look at the red spot on the back of his head...
I noticed that they close their eyes when striking the wood, which makes sense, but I've never seen it before.
Having already taken many pictures of him, I decided to push the limit a bit and creep closer. I got within the minimum focusing distance of my lens, and switched it to the "macro" mode for some portraits.
He didn't fly, or seem at all worried, though he did blink his eyes a lot in time with the noise from my shutter. I even tried a few with the pop-up flash, and it didn't faze him.
After awhile, he started working his way higher on the branch. I thanked him for being so friendly, wished him many bugs, and went up to the house to warm up a bit.
An hour later, he was still on the same branch, having worked his way back down. I took a few more, bolder this time in approaching him.
To my amusement, he was intermittently napping there. Or, at least having a rest. Having a lens shoved 3 feet from his face still didn't bother him visibly. By then I was losing light, so I let him be.
EXIF above is approximate, I used a variety of settings, and not all are listed as options. All shots link to a larger version, and EXIF is intact. All were at ISO 100. A bit of sharpening in post, removed a bit of CA from some. For a cheap, slow zoom, I'm happy.
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