White-crowned Sparrow and Autumn Foliage

A White-crowned Sparrow on an old fencepost in Oxdrift, Ontario taken this afternoon. It is full on fall colour here now and I was out looking for some images that incorporated the fall foliage. I liked the look of this old post amongst the wild raspberry bushes, so I put a small handfull black-oil sunflower seeds on top of the post and sat back hoping someone would come along. It was very windy today and unfortunately the stalk in the foreground on the left covering the tail just wouldn't stop moving!

Too cluttered? Does the image still work with the tail covered?

5DmarkII -- 400L / f5.6 -- ISO250 -- f9.0 @ 1/1250s -- -2/3 EV

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I prefer simplicity, but the biggest problem with this shot isn't the clutter; it's that the clutter covers a large part of the sparrow. A shot with all or most of the bird surrounded by the foliage would tell the same autumnal story more elegantly. When placing your seeds, could you have also snipped away some of the more intrusive twigs?

I like what you are attempting to do, the fall colors are enticing and would go well with this bird and the bg. But I think only if they compliment the bird and not compete with it.

Fair enough - just looking for some opinions on the shot. I have several other versions of the same bird - here is a shot of the same perch with fewer obstructions:

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