This is really nice! Great color, lovely soft light, the bird is a good size in the frame and sharp. A good pose with the bird all in the plane of focus, a very nice perch and lovely BG.
One thing I've learned here is that it can help a lot to sharpen the JPEG after it's created. Don't know if you've been doing that, but I open it again in PS and use Smart Sharpen, set to Lens Blur, at a very low radius of about 0.2 pixels and about 100 percent. It might be hard to see the difference but here it is. It's easy to overdo it but maybe I could have gone a little further.
I really like this one, the pose is great, colors are really nice! I really like that extra little processing you did Diane, I tried that on my latest image, now I'll have to remember that on my other images!
Very nice image and the RP with extra processing looks great. BG compliments the bird nicely and subject face and eye is well in focus. Composition also works
I would maybe go for a bit brighter even under and around the eye
Good point, Shane. Go to Quick Mask mode and paint a mask with a soft-edged brush. Out of QM mode makes it a selection and when you make a Curves adj layer, the mask will be there -- just tweak the curves.
Here's a QM tutorial. Much more flexible and powerful than the Dodge tool: