Thanks for introducing me to yet another African bird! Longclaw, indeed. There are two things that I don't love about your background: the color pattern (white streak above; I realize you couldn't do much about that) and what appears to be a great amount of noise.
Hi Pieter, good looking character, and we have a lot in Rietvlei nature reserve when they are around. Good calling pose, and I like how the angle of the head follows the line of the perch.
I think that the background - while OOF - doesn't complete the bird very well. Pose is great but it may benefit from a vertical crop. Not sure if sharpness will hold up though... JR
Joerg tried a vertical crop and it is certainly an improvement thanks for the suggestion.
Not sure about the noise Craig I did run NR on the tiff before converting to j-peg, perhaps it should be done after the conversion as I see what you have noticed.