Red-winged Blackbird

A nice calling pose, Barbara.  I like the way everything leans in one direction and the bit of cloud in the sky adds relief from the blue which I like.  It looks to me like your AF might have locked onto one of the leaves in front of the blackbird.  I don't know how you had your AF set up, but for birds in the bushes I'll use a single AF point so I have a better chance of locking onto the bird.  The shadows also seem to lack detail, but I mention that mainly because it seems to come up a lot.  In bright light, they're going to look dark and I personally don't mind them being blocked as I think it looks more natural than trying to bring out detail that yo probably wouldn't be able to see in the field.

Thanks for your comment, Dennis!  I do use one focusing point, but I was hurrying to get the picture before the bird few away so I may have focused on the leaf accidentally.  I agree with you about the dark areas on the bird.  I like a rich black color on the bird, because that's what I see with my eyes when I'm there.

As Dennis said with regards to focus and detail.  These birds are a real challenge to get good detail because of the darkness of the feathers especially in harsh lighting conditions.  It also helps to be on the same level as the bird.  But I do like calling pose.

Good shot. I really like when photographers catch animals doing what they do instead of just sitting around. So I love that you caught this RWBB singing away. My only nit picky thing is the angle of the shot is looking up instead of being at eye level. If you notice some of the really amazing shots around this forum, a lot of them feature the photographer being able to be at eye level with the bird. Good job and keep posting!