Say's Phoebe in Flight

Hello to all here! I have been busy in other forums here at NPN and missing out on the goings-on over here in Photo Art. Shame on me! I see you are all up to your same high level of great ideas and creativity.
So, here’s the tale of an image from a recent Birding Photography workshop to Malheur NWR in remote southeast OR, led by fellow NPN’ers, Nate Chappell and Ken Archer. I’ll be showing both the original image out of the camera and the final, processed image, because the whole adventure in making this photo represents something of a feat for me. First is the final, processed image: a huge crop from landscape to portrait format; tedious removal of “hand-of-man” elements around the bird, which included a garden hoop and an iPhone playing the bird’s call; hand blending of background; tuning color, sharpening, etc., in NIK Viveza.
Technicals: Panasonic Lumix GH-3 (micro 4/3 mirrorless DSLR, crop factor 2x), Lumix 100-300 G Vario f4-5.6), tripod; f 7.1, 1/2000, ISO 800; fast trigger finger, intense watching and a little luck.
All told, the final image comprises a 5-day intensive workshop, a couple of hours at this particular site in the field and a day’s worth of work at the computer. So I am eager to hear what you think of this! (See the original, full-frame, capture below of a small, wild, skittish bird. Note its size compared to the iPhone. No blind available, so couldn’t get very close.)
Thanks for taking a look at this artwork of Say’s Phoebe and for sharing yours! Please point out anything I can improve; otherwise, I hope you enjoy!