Arsdel
This one's beautiful.....and I love the complimentary blue sky. I agree with the oversharpening and I might be tempted to tone down the bright front of the post so my eyes can spend more time on the wonderful bird.
yes, although this forum is for such human-made posts, the brightness more than the type of post grabs a bit too much attention. I am sure that selective curves could tone it down.
You already knwo what I think of your improvements. You win the best improvement award hands down. Keep up the progress. Thanks for sharing. Jeff hit this one right on.