Jeff - seems like the overcast sky was working against you. I may try a horizintal crop with this, have the bird looking into space to the right. certainly a sense of the bird about to take flight.
Nice "about to take-off" pose. Good colours. Image seems a tad dark...skies like this call for high-key images...a bit more exposure to the image would have given you that instead of a grey sky. I agree an horizontal comp would work better, or at least a squarish comp with some off the top.