Bright Broadbill - Border

Nice looking bird, background is nice.  The perch looks really odd.  Don't understand how it is so out of focus while in the same (or close to) focal plane as the bird.  The red border around the image is pretty distracting to me.  Just competes with the nice colors in the bird.
 

Keith, thank for your comments. The perch is actually a long arching branch that the hummer was sitting in the middle of. Not sure how to mitigate the OOF of the perch, unless I manufacture a fake perch? Or, do you think it would help to darken it a bit so it is not so obvious? I do get carried away with the fancy border now and then. I took a dropper from  a pixel on the bird's beek to get that color and thought it would compliment the overall look. I will rework the border and repost when I get a chance. I appreciate your help. Ed

ALWAYS shoot!    Even if just for practice!
But I can't tell you how many "poor" images from years ago I have recovered as software for processing improves. 
Beautiful bird - love these guys. Also don't  quite see how the perch is so OOF with an F8 and the bird close to the same plane.
I sure would keep this one.
Sandy 
 

The brightness looks about right, Ed.  Your settings seem reasonable to me, given the situation.  I do think that some fill flash would help tame the shadows a bit.  I do wish the perch hadn't been at such an angle-always a problem with hummingbirds since your dof is usually very shallow if you're going to get them at a decent size in the frame.

Really nice pose, color, and detail.  Probably the only thing you could've done about the perch would be to have taken a second picture of the perch in focus and combine the images.

Great detail and colors in the hummer, Ed. I really like that pose. The OOF perch is a tad distracting but not a lot you could do other than change your angle and that is certainly not always possible.

Here is one without the bright red border. Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this. 

This is a gorgeous photo of this bird with great detail and color. I agree with the other posters on that branch.  Don't know if you could stick another branch in there?  That would make it perfect

i liked the red border!!  

Best
Kathy Snead

Nice pose.  Not sure how you can fix the OOF perch.  I have never tried a teleconverter on my 100-400.  

The light is harsh but you handled it well with the underexposure here Ed, I like it much better without the border.  The detail is nice but some fill flash would have brought it out even more.