Lesser Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroats are widespread across Europe and into the Middle East and are the commonest Sylvias on passage in Cyprus. They are not like the British variety though - if anything, a shade duller without the strong black mask. This male paused for a few seconds in the early morning sunlight, just long enough to take a few pictures. The exposure was raised to +0.3. The photo was taken in a very bright, white desert-type habitat and as such the auto exposure would have naturally darkened everything down. To compensate and retain the natural colours, the exposure was manually raised to fool the meter reader.