This is an oldie that I don't believe I ever posted. Probably because the fine feather detail was not to my liking. My old D7000 didn't handle high ISO well (remember when 2000 was considered high). I went back to the original RAW file and reprocessed with some additional skills and tools, and this is better than it was, although not perfect. Full height from landscape format. I like the almost studio-like feeling to the image.
D7000, 500f4, ISO 2000, 1/2500s @ f/7.1 manual. (I had successfully gotten a few flight shots of the grackles at my feeder, which explains the high SS. I suppose knowing I was shooting a static subject here I should have dialed back the SS and saved some ISO, but who was thinking?)
Thank you all. Yes, I too would like a little more room at the bottom, but alas there is none. Brian, I don't know how I missed that cloning line; thanks for spotting it.