Red-breasted Merganser

Two of these males in breeding plumage spent most of April hanging around at a local fishing pond. This is the first opportunity I've had with them and I'm definitely adding them to my list of species that are difficult to expose. The light on the face has to be from just the right angle to get any detail in the blacks without blowing out the whites. In this image I did lighten the blacks slightly and though a couple of the white secondaries seem a little bright they're not over 254 in a threshold layer.

7D, 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 320, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, shot from a tripod on 4-13-10, cropped to 48% of original image, lightened the blacks a little, cloned out the lower part of a very OOF bird that poked into the upper frame edge, sharpened, no other processing, natural light

Comments/critique appreciated