Doppelgänger

The "doppelganger" is more of a distraction imo. Actually, I would prefer the empty space. Others may disagree.

This is a tough one Richard,
The subject bird is well exposed, tack sharp with a sweet environment and nice pose. The BG bird appears very unnatural and has a presence that competes with the subject bird in a negative way. I like this composition but will have to agree with Phil that the empty space would be better.
Shot either way.

Phil and Mike: thanks for the cc. It is appreciated. You've got me wondering if the b/g bird is too bright, too out of focus or lends nothing to the photo or all the above. My take on this photo is that we see lots of excellent work of lone birds and this one struck my fancy because it's a bit different.

Richard,
My first thoughts were too bright and too OOF. The subject bird appears to be looking at the BG bird with concern which does add interest and makes this a hard choice. The BG bird feels more like a statue than a real bird as presented and that's the main thing that doesn't work IMO.

The front bird looks excellent, the other one is too much of a distraction to my taste, however it makes for a nice title for your post . I personally have nothing against (a lot of) empty space in images .. Cheers, Hans

I really like the front bird, details, pose sharpness... I too find the OOF bird in the background a distraction.

I have to agree with the other comments regarding the oof bird, but this would be a real solid shot if it were removed. I I like the greens and browns together and the main bird is tack sharp.

The bird in sharp is excellent, and I agree with others about the oof bird as a distraction.

OK OK, I give. Will still try different things from time to time. Richard

Just wanted to see what it would look like with the OOF bird removed. A quick clone (no promises of precision on this one).

I do think it looks better without it.....

Keith: definitely agree. Can you provide any details as to how you did the cloning. I've never done any where near as much. Richard

Can you provide any details as to how you did the cloning. I've never done any where near as much.

Richard: Really nothing special. The uniform black area made it relatively easy to clone out the OOF bird. Just work in smaller areas to build up more black, then bigger clone stamp brushes to make it smoother as space permits. As I said, I didn't take much time and didn't work the boundary between the black background and the transition to the mid ground.

Richard,
The OP is certainly very different I am unsure whether it works or not.
The RP looks much better