Bruce, because your BG is so much lighter than the bird's back you've ended up underexposing him a bit. Using fill flash here might have helped depending on how close you were to him. (I've gotten very nice results with my 40D and the oncamera flash.) You might try bringing up the midtones in a levels adjustment and see how that looks.
You've got a nice pose and a strong HA - I'd clean up the perch and take out the two things that are poking up out of the frame.
Hi Bruce- Love the look-back pose. You chose an f-stop sufficient to render the whole more or less bird in focus. I like that. I would shave some off the top and left for a little tighter crop. Agree with Jules about the brightness of the bird, which could be brought up a bit, to good effect. I wonder if there is any detail in that dark eye that you could coax out with some dodging?
Alright, I must just not have my monitor calibrated well, because the first post did not look too dark. So, I went back to PSE and lighted this up. I didn't attempt to remove anything from the perch. After all I put it there! :) Let me know if this is better or over done or whatever.
American Goldfinch
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