Snow Egret in backwater

I like the composition, Anthony, but the brightness of the foreground foliage is a bit overpowering and the sunlit portion of the Egret's back looks like it was overexposed and is lacking in detail.  The focus looks good and you managed to get an almost clear line of sight, though that one reed leading to the beak pulls my attention quite a bit. 

Normally, I might suggest lowering the exposure in the whole image a bit and reducing the bg even more, but that golden water would look odd if it were much darker.  I think this is a case of try again and hope you can get a slightly clearer view in early morning or late evening light when there's not so much contrast in the image (a hazy overcast would work nicely to subdue the contrast as well).

As far as your shooting parameters go, I'm puzzled as to why you were at iso 4000.  The 7Dii doesn't produce very good results at that high an iso and 1/4000 sec exposure is almost never necessary, even for bif shots.

 

I really cool composition! Dennis already summed up everything I was going to mention, haha.

Thank you both for your thoughtful comments.  In retrospect I submitted this without much inspection because I was struck by the framing of the egret by the colorful vegetation.  I agree that the reed distracts and essentially ruins it and that the vegetation is probably too bright.  I was shooting just before noon and was enjoying some color and drama I guess.  I tried decreasing the exposure and .75 doesn't look too bad.  This is muddy water from recent rains.  I did attempt to rein in the bright areas on the egret's back with LR adjustment brush but not effectively.  As to the 1/4000 setting - I have noted blurred wing tips on pelicans and eagles and other birds at lower settings which led me to this - but admittedly this increases other problems.  

Thanks again for your time and consideration!  This is what continues to bring me back to NPN because I get straightforward feedback, not empty back pats.