From my boat this morning, Lake Toho. The females eye is a deep dark red and not as prominent as the males. It appears almost non existent as posted but at full size is visible.
MkIII, EF500, 1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 800, HH, 90% of full frame
Exceptional pose, exposure, and sharpness. It seems to me that there is more negative space at top and bottom than the sides. I wonder if it would look better with the same amount of cropping (10%)?
Also from the data given, I'm not sure if you used a 1.7x extender or not. If not, perhaps a wider aperture would give a more blurred BG?
Nice pose and lighting Mike. I don't mind the background here. If your ethics permit, I think a bit of "eye-doctoring" to add a reflection or catchlight in the eye would really do wonders for this shot.
Great points mentioned above, I would have expected a bit more detail with a 90% crop with the 500 at 1/4000 and wonder if HH in the boat caused some camera shake?
She is a real beauty, Mike. Considering what you were working with, I think you did a find job on blurring the BG. This capture depicts well the environmental in which we regularly see these Snail Kites and adds another dimension to the photo. The landing pose is KILLER, and the picture is nice and sharp and well exposed.
I see some haloing effect on "her" left wing tips. If it were mine, I might try adding more space on the bottom than the top; add a tad on the right if you have it. This would help to show off her landing pose.
Awesome landing pose Mike! Good points above. The eye looks natural to me, and much more red would definitely start looking not quite right. That said, a little more eye contact would have been nice. Focus appears sharpest on the tail feathers. I like the idea of darkening the BG a bit. And I'd add some canvas on the right and remove a little off the top.