Young tri-colored herons, St. Augustine Alligator farm last May. Less than ideal background, but I couldn't resist the expressions. All comments welcome.
Great expression, as you say the background does distract.
Have you tried the image with the foreground at the bottom cropped off (about 3cm's). it may help :)
Young TCHs are a blast to watch and photograph, but bgs are difficult at the Aligator farm. I really like the pose and expression of the first bird, but the bg and the other bird in shadow are a bit distracting. When I photograph at the Aligator farm or at Gatorland whcih is very similar, I usualy look for distant, pleasing bgs, and try to be in position when a bird gives me a shot at a clean bg. I think this is easier to do with flight shots than stills there, because you can get better seperation from the bg much of the time.