Buzzard sitting on post

Good pose and the background, although bright, is very interesting. Since he was just standing there, you might have reduced the SS, allowing you to both lower the ISO and decrease the aperture, increasing the DOF. While I don't see much evidence of noise, that might have improved the sharpness; I see some sharpening artifacts around the beak.

I think this is a pretty good look at a Vulture.  I like the ruffled feathers and the colors of the feathers tends to blend in with the background and perch.  I particularly like the background.

Hi Ry
I like the lighting and head turn, (with good eye contact).  What did you do to reduce the noise with a ISO o 3200?
Peter

Nice pose and an interesting background. Perhaps a little more sharpening?

An interesting image - not sa subject that we see very often. The composition is good, although I'd prefer a little more space in front of the vulture. I'd also like a bit more detail in the feathers where they are darkest.

I agree with Ronald about reducing the ISO and stopping down the lens for more DOF as well as the lack of critical sharpness.

You've received some good feedback on this.  One thing that no one has mentioned is that this looks like a composite to me.  The light sources don't match.  There's a strong light source coming from the back left side of the background, yet the light on the bird/post doesn't match that.  I had the same impression with the image of the hummingbird in your prior post.  Thoughts?

Thanks for noting that Keith. I was just looking at that as well, and then I read your comment.

You almost made a buzzard beautiful. Really nice capture of a difficult subject. It has a painterly feel. Just beautiful.

A nice image of the vulture, Ry, though it is a little lacking in feather detail.  I suspect that's a function of the high iso and noise reduction, but I could be wrong.  The background does look cool though decidedly artificial.

All, thanks for your comments. Very helpful.  Sorry about the delay in response to your questions. Couldn't figure out how to reply individually tp your comments so trying this means, hopefully it works.

Keith,  yes it is a composite background on this and the hummingbird shot. I didn't know this was inappropriate, so thanks for bringing to attention. Perhaps you might clarify this in the guidelines

Ronald/Richard - The ISO was high because I just finished shooting pictures in the storm and I forgot to turn it down to capture this image.

Peter- The 7d ii generates minimal noise at 3200. Any noise there was was eliminated in post production. Thanks again for all the support!

Keith,  yes it is a composite background on this and the hummingbird shot. I didn't know this was inappropriate, so thanks for bringing to attention. Perhaps you might clarify this in the guidelines

Thank for for the confirmation.  I've moved this image an the hummer to Photo Art.  Yes, it might be nice to clarify every single exception in the posting guidelines, but that would result in guidelines that are so long that I'm sure nobody would ever read them all.  Digital composites are not representations of Avian images in nature.  Here's the guidelines for Photo Art:
 

• Photo Art Gallery - Digitally manipulated or multiple exposure images that are intended as obvious artistic renditions of nature.