Just a Dark Eyed Junco - but in nice light

What technical feedback would you like if any?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

As noted in my title, this is just a dark eyed junco, but light makes all the difference in whether an image makes it or not. I was up in the nearby mountains yesterday to photograph migrating warblers and got a few images, but nothing special. This junco landed on this perch with a dark, shaded background. I was shooting in manual exposure and had my settings dialed in for birds in the light, so no changes were needed. This image is cropped a bit from full frame, and one bright twig in the upper right was removed.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)

Olympus EM1-X
300mm f/4 with 1.4x TC
1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 400

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Precious photo of this little guy Keith. The lighting is spot on. Very nicely seen and executed.

Nice catch with a good expression on an interesting branch. Minor nit but my eye goes to the start of a branch at the left edge. I’m always curious in these high contrast situations how a version would look with quite a bit of Highlight and Shadow moves in LR. The BG looks very interesting and it might be nice to pull it out a little more.

Hi Keith
Vary nice shot. The lighting, detail and eye kick are spot on. As Diane said, I guess you could darken the highlight on the left t side of t he frame . Anyway nice work.
Peter

Feather detail is spot-on. Looks like the bird almost landed in your lap! I like the dark BG and the perch, but the light actually appears a bit harsh to me. Maybe you could warm this one up a little bit?