I agree with Dan about the vertical crop. The branch would would 'work' the diagonal of a vertical crop very nicely.
Sharp, nice angle in frame, interesting perch.
I might consider shooting 1/2 strop or more off max. aperture to improve dof and IQ in some cases. Looks like you had enough light to work with , esp. with the D500.
Beautiful shot of a wonderful bird, Alex. I agree with Stu on the comp and am happy with going wide - but I happen to favour that normally. Perfect background, detail is excellent and rendering looks great without knowing what these look like in real life. Love the perch too.
What a sweet image!. I like your comp.
Great light and color palette.
IQ is excellent.
You state that this is a full frame image so you were nice and close with your set-up so I would make sure I had an aperture of 7.1 to 8. It really helps make an image more "defined". You would only gain 1/4" at most with your DOF but being at a higher aperture really "tightens" thing up and gives better IQ ( although the IQ here is excellent). Try it! You will see what I mean,
Gail
Thanks all -- really appreciated. I'll look at some of the different crops suggested. I need to get better with switching to vertical in the field as well. Agree about stopped down a bit more, brain fart here, but got relatively lucky with the berries all being pretty much in the same line. Thanks again,