Northern Cardinal (f)

I captured this image at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 500mm F/5.6 VR AF-S ED PF, camera and lens supported by Oben carbon fiber monopod with a Wimberly MonoGimbal head
1/2500 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +1 ISO 6400 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 500mm (750mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2021 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped for composition and presentation

P.S. Learn more about Circle B Bar Reserve in the BAA Middle Florida Photography Site Guide that Artie and I co-authored. It is available at this link https://birdsasart-shop.com/the-baa-...ic-site-guide/

Nicely done. Like the down the barrel stare. Wish for an all-green BKGR.

with love, artie

I love those cardinals - they always look so sharp. Artie is right, an all green background would be exceptional. A content aware crop is surely justified here ? :bg3:

Hi Joe looks good overall .
The subject itself does look ... not that happy or excited :bg3:.
Color and Tones are looking very good , I am more than ok with the duo color BG .

TFS Andreas

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, much appreciated.

The head on view is nice. Good thinking on the vertical framing. Nice background as well.