Are you still there ??

He/she is kinda cute tho :) I wonder if you take off a bit more from the right side and the bottom if it might feel a little more balanced.
Cheers, T.

Love the details on the bird's head, and the bark does indeed add interest.

Dying to know what kind of sapsucker this is, exactly.

I agree with Toya; I would take some off the bottom.

Lovely details in the bird's head, catchlight in the eye and gleam on the beak. I concur with taking some off the bottom and also perhaps darkening the left side to set if off against the bark (kind of like in the lower part of the photo now).

As far as I can tell it's a female Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis). We see them every now and then up here.

Sandy,
Nice capture and good detail.
The bark almost looks like concrete that has the aggregate exposed, very interesting. I agree with the cropping, the way it is now looks like a vertical pano, IMO.
Roger is absolutely correct on the identification; The males throat are completely red and the females have the throat red with chin white. It is hard to tell however, without seeing the body as all the Sapsuckers have similar head features.

nice shot Sandy, love sapsuckers , would like to see bigger crop for enjoying the beauty of the bird....... thank you for sharing

I like this as presented, for me the texture of the tree trunk is awesome. The young sapsucker is a sweet bonus. Excellent composition Sandy!!!

Ken Archer

I'm fine with the crop as presented - the textures are very interesting and the proportions look good in the larger version. Image quality is also nice from the light and exposure. The only minor change I recommend is removing the out of focus "smudge" on the left side about level with the tip f the beak that looks like a dust bunny but is probably just something in the background.

Techs look excellent Sandy and I agree, the tree bark brings a lot the image.
Only suggestion I have is to blend the grey area left side a little better, I see a couple of small splotches there.
I understand your reasoning on the comp, I'm fine with it as posted.
Well done & have a great weekend!

Sandy,
You've got me laughing at the title. Very clever indeed. I like the shot as posted and I'm fine with the crop. Sometimes there's nothing you can do. The bark adds plenty to this image Sandy. Nice detail and exposure.
There are however two dust bunnies along the left edge, one about a third of the way down in the grey and another about a third of the way up from the bottom, also in the grey. I see this was taken with the D300s. Was this image taken before you got your new D800? Hope all is well with you and your folks.

Very nice detail in the larger version and I like the bark setting in this. I might experiment with the crop and crop just above and below the subtle horizontal bark lines but a minor item. I really like the look and overall composition on this, way to go Sandy, excellent find.

Sweet image Sandy. The crop works for me.

Nice one Sandy - great detail in both the bird and the trunk