White-crowned sparrow among the pines

Hello, fine folks. Here is a picture I took in late May; I am now happily processing images from the Springtime as pickings are slim, as they say, here in ugly Toronto these days. Do allow me to disparage my no-longer-fair city, please! Moving on, this particular picture was taken with the Canon 7D and 70-300L at 269mm, iso400, 1/640, f5.6, and this is approximately 80% of the original capture. I do wish I'd included some more room on the bottom, which is to say that in the moment of shooting I wish I'd looked at the frame's entirety, but I must have become flustered; never before had I been so close to my second-favorite sparrow and by the time I'd moved myself a little bit lower the fine friend had all but turned away from me! I've been taking pictures of birds for about two years; perhaps two years from now I won't be as nervous when faced with opportunities deemed by y.t. to be beautiful and exciting! If presented with such an opportunity today I would up the iso, slightly lower the shutter speed, get down to f8 or beyond. At any rate, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts and opinions. Thank you kindly for taking the time...
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Nice comp. , color and details. Good exposure as well. Would love to see more DOF , but you already mentioned that , so you know it needs it. Still a "keeper" as it is.

Hi Jack (who should change his name to Sparrow instead of Breakfast). You could be Capt Jack Sparrow!!:bg3:
I digress...
Your self critique is spot-on.
The only thing that really bothers me about this shot is the lack of space on the bottom with his little foot cut off.
Gail

Hi Jack, the head is nice and sharp, and I like the eye. Pity about the lack of DOF, but you have exposed the sparrow well enough. With the sparrow framed at the bottom, I would take about half off the top to create a pano crop, so as to align with the horizontal needled perch. Pity you didnt manage to get the foot all in. :w3

Thanks folks! Even with the problems I'm quite pleased with the shot (as well as a few other frames that have a LITTLE more room on the bottom) but mostly I look at this as a lesson for the future. See? I have a good attitude after all! I had no idea who Jack Sparrow was and so I looked it up. Obviously I'd heard of those movies but never saw any of them. Am I better off? I'll never know!

Jack, agree about self critique...the need for more DOF and room below. Nevertheless, its a fine shot with lot of textures, nice head turn, exposure and detail. Great job getting so close. small birds with short focal length is a tough thing to do.

Thanks Kaustubh...it was my finest and stealthiest approach to date. I don't ever use audio to attract birds but I will admit to whispering and singing to them a little bit. Is there a difference, ethically? I don't presume to know. Anyhow, many thanks for the compliments, they are most encouraging. The best thing this forum has taught me: look at the entirety of the frame before and during and after! Look above, look below, look side to side! That said: man o man is it ever hard for me to keep my cool when face-to-face with a white-crowned sparrow in lovely morning light. If it were a white-THROATED sparrow I would probably have swooned like a Victorian lady from a Jane Austen novel. My camera would have fallen on top of me. Who knows where I'd be now?