pink

[stuart wanuck]

nikon d 300 iso 400
m 1/1250 @ 6
300 mm with 1.4x

[Henry Domke]

The background foliage is distracting.
Perhaps you could have taken it at a different angle? Or perhaps you could have used the lens more wide open?
Or, you could use Photoshop to soften and reduce the contrast and saturation of the background.

[Raymond Lee]

Good exposure, head angle, colour, and details. The background is busy, but it is what it is.

[John Cooper]

A nice pose Stuart of this attractive spoonbill with wings raised. Pity about the BG but can't do much about that unless it moved into a more favourable area.

[Roger Clark]

Actually, several things can be done for the background. First, I would crop the top off and that gets rid of a lot of the distracting background. Second, burn (darken) the remaining background, and third, blur it a little. Nice image. If this is a crop, I would include more of the reflection. I would have aimed the camera down to include more of the reflection if this were full frame. If this event happens quickly and you have only the center AF active, put that active AF point on the area where the bird's legs meet the water. The eye in this case is close to the same distance, so the bird will be nicely focused and you get the reflection.

Roger

[stuart wanuck]

redone as per roger cropped and bg darkened

[Roger Clark]

I was thinking something more like this.
Roger

[stuart wanuck]

Thanks roger