Hi everyone. Just thought I would take a spin at posting here in an effort to begin learning and improving my photography. Thanks. Brian
Taken May 7, 2018, at Pilot Mountain State Park, NC
Welcome, Brian !
This is a VERY nice first image. The bird is in a great pose on an interesting branch. I like how the branch wraps around the bird a little.
Your detail is quite good, but a bit more in the blacks would be even better (“Viveza” would do this easily, or a simple “levels” adjustment to the dark area only.)
BG sky is great, but a bit bright. It’s hard to expose a black bird against a bright sky.
I’d personally clean up the two thin branches, as they are a little distracting - but a very personal choice…
Lastly, more room around the bird on all 4 sides and then moving him off-center to the right would be the final touch to a GREAT image.
Looking forward to more of your posts!
Sandy
Very nice portrait. Vultures are tough against the lighter sky but I think you’ve done well. You’ve got great detail in the black of the feathers and nice color in the sky. This crop works fine for me for a portrait shot. The perch has interesting texture. It does look like the sharpest part of the bird is his back feathers. Having the head/eye sharp is most important so when shooting a narrow DOF, be sure the focus point is in that area rather than the back. With nothing else in the background, you could have also chosen a deeper DOF to get more of the bird and/or perch in focus. But IMO that’s an artistic choice and your choice would be fine if the eye was sharp. Nice first image! Welcome to the forum. 
The eyes usually need to be the point of focus. good job on exposing for the blacks I assume. the subject could handle a bit more black without loosing detail I think. Yes, offset a bit more to the right. If this is full frame and you don’t have anymore imagery to the left the PS command content aware fill works great on this type of sky shots. good pose, Nice shot.
Sorry to have missed this when you first posted it, Bfian. This is a very good girst post. Welcome to the forum. Others have pretty much covered any issues with the image. I’ll just add that the bit of cloud helps relieve a pure blue sky and zdds a lot to the image.
