Female Golden Fronted Woodpecker

[Mack Hicks]

Had a pair of golden fronted working overhead from my popup blind. The female stayed mostly in the tree.
D700, 500 f/4 with Kenko 1.4. ISO 800 1/640 f/8.

PP LR3, cropped, brighted a bit, sharped and noise reduction. I did lighten the eye a little selectively, which is a no no for the contest for which this photo was taken.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good-looking individual - I'd love to see one of those some day! The pose looks nice and features a perfect HA. I like the patches of yellow showing here and there.

The large OOF tree above is distracting, but you can reduce its impact by cropping down a good portion from above, and then left to retain the aspect ratio. With a bit of work getting rid of the OOF twig at bottom should be easy enough - although I realize the contest rules you mention would frown upon that. When lighten the eye make sure to keep the pupil intact and black (work only on the iris).

[Mack Hicks]

While I can't use the image in the contest, I did try some of your suggestions. Recropped, then cloned out the little remaining branch. Cloned the most offensive part of the twig away. Thanks for the input.