I kind of like the somewhat unconventional composition here Monte. A strong vertical element just slightly to the left of center with a little bird smack dab in the middle. I do wish the bird and the lower part of the perch were a little brighter. I probably wouldn't have chosen f/4 in this situation; I would have stopped down to f/8 to nail the sharpness of both bird and perch. There really is no penalty for stopping down against a sky BG.
Agree on going a little lighter if you can. Actually I think critical focus is on the top of the perch. The eye look sharp but the rest of the plumage is OOF. Stopping down and making sure to have the foucs point in the bird would have made this one much better.