Night-Crowned Heron Ready for Takeoff

To improve my ability and get my head more into what I'm doing, I'm trying to stop by my usual birding spot a couple times each week on my way home from work (golden hour). Today was windy and not much activity - but before the wind picked up I saw this fella in very nice light and - (yes, low and behold I'm learning to recognize behavior predictors)... I could tell he was likely to take flight in a bit so I hung around. Glad I did, had time to get the settings I thought I'd need (maybe SS a bit high but it accomplished my goal) and I'm quite happy with the results. Obviously, a lower perspective would have been nicer - I was about 80 yards out - and I must say this "test" makes me feel pretty happy about my 2nd copy of the Tamron 150-600 G2. It's as sharp as I could hope for at this price point at 450mm (700 on my DX crop D500).

Context: D500, Tamron 150-600 G2, 1/2500, f8, 450mm, ISO 640 - about a 50% crop - pp is Capture One Pro 10, slight sharpening on face and some desaturation and reduced exposure on bkg.

Thanks for any suggestions on what I could do to improve next time. TIA.

Jay, the bird looks to be sharp and you have a good head angle and WB, I don't care to much for the dark vignetting around the corners
and the image is a slight bit under exposed. I would have gone with a horizontal crop with more room in front of the GBH so it doesn't feel like it's going to flyn into a wall.

-Tim

Is this better IYO?

Jay, your first post was better you just need to lighten up your shadows a bit and get rid of the vignetting.

-Tim

I liked the vertical crop more too. Here's less shadows and less vin.

Jay, your darks are fine but your light need to be a bit darker, try adjustments in curves if that helps.
The horizontal crop was better but still needs a bit more room in front of the bird.
For the correct ID this is a Great Blue Heron.

-Tim