Wonderful capture with excellent detail and exposure as well as a good head turn. I find the crop a tad tight especially for the size of subject. A wonderful BG and if it had been possible to step back a little it would have decreased the steepness of this image. Like this a lot and thanks for sharing Dan.
I know these are tough birds (very shy) so congratulations on getting this. I agree with Judy Lynn- more room at the top would improve the comp. I like the BG, head angle and behaviour.
You may be interested in this thread on sunning behaviour:
A well-known bird photographer associated with this site once told me that flash never works on black birds. I think this image illustrates the point nicely (without taking anything away from the image which I think is very nice). Flash just bounces off the feathers and what you get back is shine as the flash light is absorbed by the black. In my experience, a nice soft, low contrast light is best for black birds.
I would also lighten the dark spot in the BG near the bill. Are those clone marks next to the bird's right wing? Looks like you had harsh light to deal with...
Daniel, yes they are clone marks, there was a stick there. As you can see, I am not great at cloning, and didnt want to touch the dark spot by his bill for that reason. Light didnt seem harsh when I took the image, but it does look that way...
Thanks for the repost Peter
I will definatley have to go back to the origional and tweak a little different. Thanks again