Americana

This isn't the best shot, but the conditions didn't help. I didn't have my tripod and it was still pretty bright out.

Photo was taken along Mississippi river in Red Wing, MN.

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You probably should not say anything negative in your introduction to the image. Why put the one giving his comments into a negative state of mind - maybe he won't notice the defects on his own!

As a nature shot, I think it's very good. An animal or human should always have plenty of room in the image to look into or move into - makes for better composition.

So, in this instance, assuming it has been cropped, I would recommend a looser crop to give him some room to the left.

Also, notice that there is not much detail in the body. Either my monitor is too dark or it's a little too underexposed. In this case, it requires a careful hand to lighten the body to bring out some detail without ruining the head, but I think there's some room there to play with.

TCguy; as Robert says; the feathers lack detail. You don't have the Image editing flag turned on in your profile; so I will just ask if you have Photoshop CS or another newer version of PS that has the Shadow/highlights feature under the Image/Adjust menu?

if you do; play with the 'shadows' slider in there.
if you don't; play with curves. You can at least bring out some more of the body feather detail without changing the rest of the pix at all; since it's the only near-black in the image.

Good luck!

(I WISH I could have the opportunity to take pictures of these birds in the wild!)