Magpie-lark giving me a wary look

[Glenn Pure]

A shot I processed a few months ago but never got to posting partly because of the busy background (and the blown highlights on the right edge of the bird as seen, which are beyond recovery). Perversely, I like the setting in spite of its busyness. These birds are very common and this one is immature as indicated by the head markings and rusty tones (not just a result of the late afternoon light). Consequently, they are often overlooked. I was able to get close to eye level by standing on a large earth bank close to the tree - which is why I was getting a wary look. Crop is maybe 3/4 of the frame area.

As always, thank you for looking and for any comments you are kind enough to share.

Technical: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (original version) at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/400 sec, f7.1, ISO 1250. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 2.5, crop, lighting adjustments, reduced luminance NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Modest NR to bird and stronger NR to background. Bird only sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian Blur, ~0.4 pixels at 50%) after final size reduction.

[John Whaley]

Beautiful light and color palette in this one. I like the pose, eye level pov and direct eye contact. The whites on the head look hot on my monitor.

[John Mack]

Nice light here. The background is pretty cluttered but you addressed that. Wish the bird was on the right side looking into the frame.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

The BG is too cluttered and the overexposed highlights are doing no justice to this gorgeous youngster.
The fact the light is coming from the "wrong" direction is eased by it turning its face towards you to be lit nicely. However, the issues with the HL and busy BG are what make this not as appealing as it could be.
Since it is a fairly common local bird, I am sure you'll get a much more aesthetically pleasing shot of one.

[gail bisson]

Hi Glenn,
I usually love your images but this one is not working for me either.
I pretty much agree with what Akos has said,
Gail