Chestnut-crowned Becard

[Arthur Grosset]

In the past I have concentrated more on record shots for my website but hope to learn from this forum how to improve my images.
Canon 20D, 400mm f/4.0 DO, at f/4.0, 1/400, ISO 400, hand-held

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome, Arthur. I like the pose and the snack adds to it. I would prefer a lower angle, wider DOF and the BG looks a bit noisy. If it is not full frame, you could give it a bit more space.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Big welcome Arthur. A beautiful species with lovely detail and lighting and I like the fact that it has a little worm in its beak. A definite bonus !! However I find the cropping a little tight and would have liked just a little more of a head turn.

[Jody Melanson]

Like the prey in beak. Like the pose, wish for more DOF though and some NR on the BG.

[James Salywoda]

Nice shot would prefer a lower angle but sometimed you take what you get the snack adds to the image....

[Arthur Grosset]

Thanks for all those comments with which I agree but let me give you my constraints.
It is very tightly cropped but I attach the full frame to show why. The pesky greenery in the foreground is one of the difficulties with rainforests and it is often not possible to shift position so cropping is one way to eliminate it. I am sure there must be some way to eliminate it on Photoshop but I am not that adept.
DOF: I agree but since my top priority is record shots I normally use aperture priority set to max aperture so that I get the speed for a hand-held shot. If the bird is kind enough to hang around I will then reduce the ISO first and then reduce the aperture. (Maybe with my new 1D Mk 3 I won't have to be too concerned by ISO-induced noise.)
BG noise. I presume that I should somehow mask the bird then reduce noise on the background.
Many thanks once again for these helpful comments.