Snail Kite perched

[Kester Clarke]

A male Snail Kite perched.
6D + 300F4 & 1.4TC @ 420mm, f/5.6, 1/640sec, ISO125

Took this image while driving along the east coast in Guyana, South America. These birds are plentiful here, but I saw this one on a nice perch/background and the light was nice.
cropped, levels adjustment, sharpening on bird and NR on BG. A second, smaller catchlight appeared in the black part of the eye. I took that out and made it darker.

any feedback welcomed.

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the pose and the view of talons. The bird is a bit soft however, mist likely because of your slow shutter speed. for birds I never go below ISO 400 (800 is my default ISO). those two oof leaves in the lower left are bit distracting to my eye

TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely image I would suggest the eye especially looks a little soft you may be able to fix that for a web sized image.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Kester, Nice bird. Nice perch. BKGR a bit obtrusive. Too saturated. Overall too dark. All addressed in the repost plus some work on the face and head to address the sharpness issues.

Where do you live? Thanks a stack for your membership support.

[Kester Clarke]

Thanks everyone.

Arthur, your edit really makes the head look better. Thanks for the comments.
I live in Guyana, South america.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks everyone.

Arthur, your edit really makes the head look better. Thanks for the comments.
I live in Guyana, South america.

YAW. One thing that might have caused problems with the head not being quite sharp enough is that you might have focused on the wing on the side of the bird which is closer to us than the plane of the eye. That's why many of us use Rear Focus.... See the tutorial here: http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2013/10/31/if-this-doesnt-get-the-point-across-nothing-will/

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful image of beautiful bird. Re post by Arthur Sir is just superb with perfect colors.I like the pose, colors of eye and beak, nice perch and composition.

Regards,
Satish.