Blue-capped Rock Thrush

[Angad Achappa]

A handsome Blue-capped Rock Thrush in his lovely patch of green around our city. Decided to include more space around the bird, instead of cropping tight.

Nikon D3S + Nikkor 600mm F4 VR + Wimberley on a Gitzo
1/320sec, F6.3, ISO-1600 @ 600mm

[Bret Goddard]

Indeed, a quite handsome Thrush. Really like the space you included although the branches in the three corners kind of offset the nice colors of the bg. Perhaps removing the three might bring out that beautiful warm looking bg.

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is quite lovely. I like the bokeh blotches very much, nice colour and detail on the bird too.
The top branches are okay for me as they "frame" the subject, but I would crop out the piece of branch in the bottom left corner (or clone it out if that fits your ethics).

[John Robinson]

Agree with the above. I like something in the back to give an "atmosphere" for want of a better word. The bright bit on the top right twig could go down in brightness maybe.
What a great little bird.
John R

[Angad Achappa]

Thank you both for the suggestions, I did a quick edit and have cloned out the lower branch as suggested, the other ones on top however I have left as they were.

Any better?

[Diane Miller]

I like the amount of location shown here, and a great capture of a beautiful bird! I wonder what you would think about trying to lighten the darks a little, though? Depending on your processing, there should be several ways to lighten the darks and darken or hold the lights.