Florida Burrowing Owl Chick

[Joseph Przybyla]

Recently I spent some time crawling around on the ground with the Florida Burrowing Owls in Cape Coral, Florida. The chicks are out and about the areas surrounding the burrows, soon they will be flying. I struggle with the composition with this image, finally deciding to place the owl just left of center. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED image captured at 400mm
1/1600 F/8 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 1800 WB set using the eyedropper tool, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2019 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped for composition and presentation

[gail bisson]

Sweet image Joe.
I really like the intense "cranky" stare and the little violet flowers.
I think your POV is excellent and the BG is nice and clean.
I like your comp but I think that moving this BO to the left of the frame is another good option.
This guys are so fun to shoot, but it can be boring sitting in the hot sun waiting for them to do something!
Gail

[dankearl]

Nice intense stair.. The FG is distracting a bit.
You may have been too low and a higher shooting angle would work better next time.

[John Mack]

Crop looks fine to me. Like the wing strech and that direct stare. Low angle is spot on.

[Joseph Przybyla]

I did more work on the image this morning. Here is a repost.

[David Roach]

Repost looks sharp from head to toe and I still love it. TFS