Coopers Hawk

wow nice!!!!

It looks like you have Red-shouldered Hawk here. Nice catch.

WOW! Love it! Love the colors!

Great shot of the hawk, but...ya gotta get rid of the chain link fence in the background.

Very nice image

chauncey wrote in post #14939581
Great shot of the hawk, but...ya gotta get rid of the chain link fence in the background.

That would improve it and I'd clone out the small leaf over its neck too.
Nice capture though!

Wow, beautiful pic of a gorgeous bird...Lovely colors and fine detail.

Stunning clarity on this image, very well done. Only thing that would make it better would be exactly what Chauncey & Qbx said

You photographed the bird itself well, but there are a few things that could be improved. The fence in the background has been mentioned, as has the leaf across the neck of the bird.
Other than that, I see two major problems with this image:
1. the bird is too tight in the frame, there's hardly any space above the head and the nails of the feet actually touch the edge of the frame there. Birds need space to breath and this bird can't. If this is a crop, then crop more generously.
2. there is too much clutter in the image. The settings are such that the bird doesn't stand out enough plus they are so many that it distracts. There's nothing much you can do about that now, but it's something to think about next time you are out shooting birds. Unless you shot it in a Zoo - which the fence maybe indicates? -, in which case you are probably stuck with these surroundings. Then just try to move left or right to find the best possible position to shoot the bird from. In any case, when shooting birds, it's not just the bird that matters. Always think of the background as well.

For this image, I would try desaturating the background a tad. Don't go too far though, I'm not talking selective colouring here! Just take it back a few points to very subtly tone it down some. You could also try adding a bit of blur to the background.
I would also try a portrait crop. That would eliminate some of the clutter on the right hand side of the image and it is a crop that goes well with this bird.

Having said all that, the bird itself looks good, has a nice pose and a good head angle and you placed him nicely in the frame in that he has space to look into.

Nice.

Thank you all for the comments. Yes this was in a park and most all the animals there are not able to be in the wild because of injuries. While I would like to make all these adjustments I've only been shooting for about 8 months with a DSLR and although I have LR 4 the learning curve for this old timer is still quite steep. Most of all thanks for all the constructive advice.
Regards,
Whisle

Don't worry about it, Whisle. It is still a good shot! And the most important thing is to have fun out there.

I like this shot a lot..

The bird seems a "little" washed out.. but other then that.. A1!!!

Nice shot considering the fence