I think I would still lose the twigs though, the ones touching the bird and the ones in the upper left of the image. Great perch, HA, eye contact, sharpness, exposure...it all works very well for me.
I like the bird,angle,calling pose, feet, exposure.
I would also try a version without the sticks. I don't think it will look unnatural to have the feathers fluffed up in one small spot.
I might also try to smooth out the black blobs in the background on the upper left. Subtle, but just enough to get me wondering what was there.
I can also easily see a more vertical crop, with about 1/3 of the left side free space cropped away. I might even add just a sliver to the top, combined with the left crop.
You did great with exposing this bird. I love the pose, the HA, the wonderful behavior and you have a nice green BG. What you choose to clone out is a personal choice you have to make. Would the picture look better without the trigs and the branches in the BG on the left? Probably. Would it be what you saw? Absolutely not. You could have two versions of the picture. If I had to make a choice I think I would leave in the trig touching the bird b/c it's part of the story/habitat, and I would clone out the branches in the BG to give it a really clean BG.