Nice and sharp Bill,
Also well exposed, looks the right colour and with a non distracting background which is blurred.
All round, well done.
The only suggestion I have would be to not crop quite so tight in front of the bill/beak.
Dave
PS
The only issue is that you didn't post the image large enough (it was just a thumbnail), if you go back and edit it, you'll see what I added to achieve the bigger picture - this is all in those instructions I gave, under 'Part 2', IIRC.
'Part 1' hosts it, 'Part 2' provides a link to it from the post you wrote in, so we can see it - else the two operations are separate and we cannot see it (or not properly) - which is a shame.
Welcome to the forums from me.
Hi photophile, i too felt the same way as Dave felt; there should have been some more "beaking" space in front; for the rest, it is very nice; hearty welcome
I agree with the comments above. Nice image but the framing is a bit too tight
Welcome photophile, good effort.
Thanks for your comments - I agree with the beak being too near the left - suppose I could have extended the background with PP but as it was aclose portrait thought it was not really necessary at the time.
Well done a nice shot.
If your camera allows you to move the aiming point, put it where you would like the eye to be in the image captured. We tend to fixate on that point when composing. If you use the center position you are setting yourself up for an image where an important part is too near the edge.
Yes. With Nikons you can move them with the control wheel/switch on the back. I have my menu set up so that it does not wrap around and OK puts it back on the center point. I find it useful for leading a bird a bit when shooting Birds in flight.
I usually try to make sure to leave myself a bit of room to crop for the final image. Reality doesn't always fit standard aspect ratios.