A big welcome to BPN. A great place to learn and grow as a nature photographer.
I rarely see photos of night hawks, and have very fond memories of listening to them flying over the fields of my native Iowa as a child. Good job of capturing one.
Challenging lighting conditions here, the dappled shade and bright background made exposure difficult.
If the light was more on the face, that would help somewhat. The shadows have left the eye very dark with no catchlight.
The bird is angled away from us. Generally the image is more engaging if the bird is turned more towards us.
As a general rule of thumb, to avoid a sense of crowding, most folks shoot for the bird being less than 75% of the frame along the longest axis. There are many successful exceptions to this, but I think this image would be better with a slightly looser crop.
You might consider toning down the bright background a bit so as to not compete so much with the subject.
Please post your camera/lens and post processing details. That really helps us understand the creation of your image and how to critique it.
Again, big welcome to BPN! Hope to see more images in the near future.
Thanks for the info. Always good to leave a little room around your subject while doing the in camera composition, so you have room to tweak the comp. later.