The one thing I'd do is crop some off the bottom...maybe right above
where you have the copyright. Then if it's still showing, clone out the
highlight on the right edge.
After that, then clone out the whitish highlights on th left hand side.
You have a nice pose and good focus in a pleasing composition. Good advice from Doug on some cleanup. The OOF FG is a bit in the viewer's way. The exposure on the bird looks good but the BG seems on the dark side. I tried lightening it but in the JPEG it brings out what appears to be some greenish cast -- maybe noise. You don't say what your processing was -- knowing that would help with ideas about going back to tweak the processing.
You could try a Nik Color Efex Detail Extractor on the bird to pull out just a little more detail, then mask it just to the bird -- a soft-edged mask staying inside the bird's outline is fine.
Depending on your intended use, the large copyright distracts from the bird.
Doug and Diane thanks for your comments and suggestions. I didn't realize I had the copyright as large and bright as it was. I have done some clean-up and brightened the background some. I ran it through detail extractor at 25% and have attached an updated photo.
I think this is better. There might be some more punch to be found in the bird -- a balancing act of detail and contrast. You have some good tools in Nik's CEP -- I'll be eager to hear what others think. Often a JPEG that is resized to be posted can profit from a separate, very careful sharpening step -- just the normal Smart Sharpen or Unsharp Mask with a very small radius, and sometimes masked to just the subject. An image can be softened (or oversharpened) when downsized for posting.
Snowy Egret
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