Hi Andreas, I don't think rotating and cropping an image is serious manipulation, kind of like leveling the horizon. I did say that I removed a branch bisecting the body. The background is smoother because I was much closer with a shallower depth of field than the image I posted to show Jon the full bird. I kept moving closer scooting along the ground until I could pretty much fill the frame with the portrait as shown. Also Topaz Denoise AI removes noise wonderfully smoothing the background while preserving the feather detail on the bird.
P.S. The repost of the image in response to Mike Poole did reflect suggestions he made in his comments on the image.