Beautiful bird and perch. I have been trying for this bird for years and still nothing to be proud of. This one is great. I'm not sure he qualifies for the theme.
Richard, this looks very nice.
Very good for the D7000 at Iso1600.
I read your post in ETL the other day about the IQ of your photos.
This looks very nice. I just don't think any photo looks well in bad light and that seems to be the biggest reason.
This light looks soft, nice and it shows in the image quality.
Nice image Richard - I like the combination of the light green and the white flowers with the Bobolink and the prey items in the bill are a fantastic inclusion. I do find my eye drawn to the orange out of focus item in the lower left corner and would consider cloning it out or at least desaturating it. The high ISO noise is visible in the blacks (which lack feather detail), but do understand you have to play the cards you are dealt!
One of the nicest Bobolink shots I've seen. Wonderful pose, perch and bg. I've never been able to get anywhere close to these guys. I have the same problem of fine-grained noise with my D7000 at high ISO. Less so if I expose to the right, but even then it can be a problem with blacks such as here. Otherwise, this is a fine image.