Great to get the bird with a nice berry in its’ beak. That works well. The pose on the perch is also nice as is the angle of the bird.
Composition: It feels very heavy on the left just to include the OOF branch which for me is a distraction. I don’t mind the branches in the lower right. It also feels like there is unnecessary space at the top and not enough on the bottom.
Processing: Feels pretty flat with a lack of contrast.
I did a little work to address those issues and came up with this version. For me this feels much more balanced as a composition, and added a bit of exposure/contrast, dodging to make the image a little less flat.
Very nice shot of this bluebird. The berries are a nice touch and I like that you got him munching down on one. I have to agree with @Keith_Bauer about a little more contrast and the crop. I think his example really adds more depth and color to this image.
Keith’s changes were just about what I was thinking of when I looked at your post, Andrew. A very nice image which just needs a bit of tweaking. I don’t know what software you’re using, but the flatness would probably respond very well to a bit of dehaze in Lightroom.
A very nice pose, and I agree with your intention to make a “different” image. And you succeeded in that.
The previous posters have given excellent advise to tweak the image. I like @Keith_Bauer 's version.
I think you succeeded in elevating the image above a bird on a stick. Good timing to get the berry in the mouth. My initial thoughts were similar to what has already been voiced and Keith’s re-work makes the bluebird pop more. I like your background as well.
A VERY nice starting image, and Keith’s rework made it special as it deserves! Even if you don’t have more canvas in the original frame, you have enough image quality to allow a crop from the top and left and add a bit of canvas on the right, with content-aware fill.
