Northern Hawk Owl

I photographed this Northern Hawk Owl in Northern Minnesota this last winter. I fed the owl live mice as part of the image making process. Canon7d, Sigma50/500os, iso800, 1/320, f9, barely cropped, NR to the bg, USM.
Comments and critiques welcome.
Regards,
Shawn Zierman.

Beautiful simple image that works very well. Great light!

A very attractive image, excellent composition, technically well executed. I especially like the oof naturally variable background with soft tones well suited to the subject. I would tone down the oof bright patch on the top edge left of the bird's head and I can just discern some residual noise in the background which you could easily fix with another round of NR. I don't know what NR algorithm you prefer but in this case I would use the median filter in Photoshop with radius 2 or 3 pixels. It does a good job on salt and pepper noise while retaining detail better than many other standard noise filters. Regards, Ian.

This is really an amazing portrait of this stunning owl! Love the perch, the BG and the pose!

Impressive bird
great pose and IQ
sweet bg

Stunning portrait of this beautiful owl. Great pose, perch, light, background, comp. Nicely done, Shawn.

Great stare, and I like the fluffed up pose making it look thicker than usual. I love it when these (and the Great Grays) perch on thin branches like that, it shows how light they really are! For sure I would take care of the whitish areas along the top, but all else looks fantastic.

Outstanding image. Great comp, amazing stare, love the thin perch. Well done.

Great image of a great looking Owl, Shawn.

Top drawer...I love the perch and backward look.

Outstanding image Shawn. Well done:S3:

Excellent Shawn, love the pose and eye contact, beautiful perch and BG too.

TFS great frame

This image is so good that it hurts :)
Your techs are spot on - great call on the DOF.
The perch, pose and bg couldn't have been any better. The bird is simply gorgeous.
Are these owl generally unafraid of humans or did you use a hide/camo?
I would consider lightly blending in the whitish areas on the top.
Agree with Adrian - top drawer stuff.

Hello
for me it is very nice. Ok composition in natural pose and BG