Nice pose and perch, David and the dof, while shallow, works pretty well. I don’t know what kind of surrounding junk you had to contend with, but this feels pretty cramped to me.
Lovely sharpness and tonalities on the bird. I agree with @Dennis_Plank that a little more breathing room could be nice, but obviously may not have been possible.
Hi Dave
Yes the framing is close, but the detail and tonality are great. The fill flash blends with the natural lighting and produced a even level light.
Peter
It is pretty tight and cropping certainly is an advantageous strategy in dealing with clutter. You can drop the the darks down by 0.3 of a stop as they appear to light to me. Other than that, a very nice look at a downy…Jim