Red tailed hawk - CC requested

I did shoot in RAW and tried processing in DPP. Both the images are cropped from the original.

What can I do to improve? Thanks a lot

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Looks like you missed focus on him. The branch is sharper than his face.

I like it when the wind ruffles their feathers.

Thank you, yes, I love the ruffled feathers.

And thanks for the feedback, I might have to MFA the lens. I was about 20 meters away, not sure what the DoF would be for that.

Yea, you have to choose a focus point and get it right on the head/eye.

You asked about the processing and I think it is good and the crop is nice. Also the background is good.

As far as other things, I'm not sure what else you could control, if you wanted to show the back, then the first shot has a good pose. Personally I don't care much for the pose on shot 2 and the eye is in the shadow.

Just like shots of flowers, hawks are always going to be 'pretty'. To get a really good shot you have to get something above and beyond. Of course it is difficult not to be looking up at the bird, get the light in the right place, get the pose and get the background and on top of all this, get the focus nailed on the eye.

But that is what you should be aiming for.

The coopers hawk in your gallery is also nice, good processing, good background, nice light.

Thank you so much for the feedback, much appreciated. I shall absolutely keep the points in mind next time I spot one of these raptors.

Seems like the hawks love to perch with the sun on their backs I did try to creep to the front but I wasn't discreet enough, unfortunately.

Thanks for the kind words on the Cooper. That was an insane piece of luck. I was wrapping up a sunrise shot from a bridge and was heading out when I spotted it on one of the "guy" cables of the bridge at eye level. Didn't get any good sunrise shots but the hawk more than made up for the early morning rise