Cedar Waxwing

Nice shot of this waxwing Jim, you could have minimized the distractions some here by shooting this at something more like F6.3 than F11 to blur out the fg and bg branches and isolate the  bird more.  I normally like to stop down to about F8 with a tc but in a situation like this I will shoot more wide open.

The only time I've had the species near eye level was here in AZ where the vegetation wasn't very tall to begin with. Otherwise this is a neck straining species for me.

I agree with Nate's suggestion on the limited DOF, but even that probably would not have cleaned this up much more than it is already.

I agree about the distractions, but the bird's body was pointed away. Shots at lower f-stops had the head or the tail soft. Even at f11 with the focus point the middle of the bird you can see the crest is just a little soft. I have shots from f6.5 to f16 (a cooperative bird). This seemed the best compromise between soft birds of the bird and a wildly distracting background.

Jim, I saw the slight softness you mentioned, and I understand your choice. A solid picture, all things considered.

I wonder if it was possible to move somewhat to the right? From the looks of it, probably not. Definitely risky, and it looks like it got brushier. Another choice might have been a move to the right and shoot a vertical.

Hi Jim, I agree with Nate as well on this. I understand your reply, but now am curious how close you were? Obviously that plays a but part in the amount of DOF you will get. Plus since the birds tail is partially covered by branches, I would have maybe chosen to focus on the head and not the body in this instance.

Hi Jim,
I would add 2 pieces of advice based on your reply.  One is to focus on the head if using limited depth of field if the tail is soft that's not a big deal in this case.  The second would be to raise your iso, the 1DX is noise free at iso 800, some of the softness could have also been to handholding the lens at a relatively slow shutter speed. 

Unless you're shooting for a field guide, I don't have a problem with the tail being partially obscured.  The habitat is nice and not excessive in my opinion, though I do wish that one little branch didn't cross the pair of berries.  It's wonderful to get one of these at eye level.

The Cedar Waxwing is one of my favorite birds.  I have flocks passing through during migration.  Even with the cropped tail, that yellow stands out and the red wing tips are beautiful.  Thanks for sharing, I like this picture.

Hey Jim,
I also like this shot although not perfect, much was beyond your control and you gave the viewer a good look at the subject. After viewing the Mega Large version, it appears that a tighter crop on the Waxwing seems to help in my opinion by eliminating some of the busy habitat at the bottom and the dead space at the top which  places more emphasis on the subject. The branch across the tail does not bother me and seems less of a problem in the tighter crop version.
Just my thoughts on an already nice image . . .