Amur Falcon, Inner Mongolia, China

A female Amur falcon gapes near Lake Wuliangsu in Inner Mongolia, China, last week. Maybe some of you guys down in South Africa will come across this species during the Northern Hemisphere winter; these falcons migrate all the way down there from northeast Asia.

Should I clone out more branches? How could I improve this image?

Device: Nikon D300
Lens: VR 600mm F/4G
Focal length: 850mm
VR: ON
Aperture: F/7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/640s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Metering: Center-Weighted
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 250

I like the vertical crop. Thanks for a good idea.

I like the horizontal crop but there's too much empty space. I'd crop close to the bend in the branch on the left. Here's a repost with some additional sharpening, some lightening of the dark area around the eye, and my version of the crop.

Craig, Some good crop options already given. I like the open mouth pose and Doug's eye lightening looks great. Beautiful bird. TFS:)

Doug and Peter have proved once again the usefulness of this forum. I asked for help and got it. Both new crops are superior to my original. Thanks, guys, for seeing new possibilities in my shot. By the way, the falcon wasn't calling in the photo; she simply opened her bill, I'm not sure why.

Superb image! I feel that the horizontal crop is good. Wish you had cloned out the branch at the bottom of the tail........

I re-worked the falcon, relying on Photoshop to get rid of the branches. Here's the vertical.

And here's the horizontal.