Sparrow-hawk feeding on prey

[Marwus]

About month ago i look from window during my work time and get this view in front of window. Picture is taken through window, when i tried to sneak to balcony than he immediately changed its position, sadly i was not able to get this branch in front of bird away from composition.

It was longer period of laying snow. It is not common in area where i live. It get wildlife closer to our village. Once even one bigger (probably buzzard) end up on my balcony when hit the window during prey hunt. That persuade finally my wife that we need some stickers on glass.

[IMG]Sparrow-hawk by David Mareček, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Wavelength]

Nice image and good pose rendered by the bird for you; i think you had better trim out the unwanted surroundings which would give a bigger image of bird, that would also eliminate most part of the visible iron network, giving the image a more Natural setting....

[Geoff F]

Yes to Nandakumar's comment about cropping slightly closer. I would particularly lose some of the left side.

Birds in trees, particularly the more wary species, are always difficult so this is a very good effort and that bit of a branch in front of the bird doesn't really matter too much.

[Tom Barry]

I also think a crop from the left would work well.

[Marwus]

Thank you for your comments, i will give it a another try with closer crop.

[Manfred M]

Two things strike me about this image:

The first one is the point others have made; the subject is not close enough;

Secondly, the background is far too busy. The human visual system keys in on bright areas or areas of high contrast. In this case it is not the subject, but the bright light coming through the branches. Your subject gets lost there.

[Marwus]

I gave it second try, please comment. I made closer crop, blurred a background a bit and add a bit of vignette to decrease highlights in top right corner.
Edit: it is not same picture, i choose different one for closer crop
[IMG]Sparrow hawk2 by David Mareček, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Wavelength]

It is much better, i think; also the lump of snow on the left tree trunk may be faded; it is a bit of distraction

[Amateur guy]

Nice shots; I also like your second photo better. In the first one, I would crop the left fifth of the photo off, and crop a smaller portion off of the left, and maybe a little off the bottom. By the way, I think the bird may be a Cooper's hawk or Sharp-shinned hawk,. How big was it?