White-throated Sparrow

[Joel Arrington]

Canon 40D, manual, 1/25 @ f/5.6 with 80-200 @200 mm, ISO 320, flash fill. I spent at least 20 minutes trying to blur the BG leaves, without much effect.

[Lana Hays]

Joel
A wonderful sparrow....nice pose and eye contact. Very nice detail, good exposure and use of fill flash as well as composition. It looks like you had some motion with the bill. I think that you'd done as much blurring as you can with the leaves. I wish the one leaf didn't obscure part of the tail and that the leaf that was behind the head wasn't orange. The perch is interesting and might be a good perch to save or move to a cleaner BG. I know that many think a clean BG....aka....bird on a stick is the best image but I think today the trend is to include some of the habitat and perhaps have the bird a little smaller in the frame.
You just have to find a way to make it all come together.

[Joel Arrington]

I didn't notice the bill until after I posted the image, but I think it will be easy to fix. The stump is on its side, half buried and weighs several hundred pounds. It will not be moved. I have it baited for tomorrow and will install some spare vegetation well behind, I hope, where the birds will likely perch. Thank you for your continuing sound advice.