He never taught me ,, Ok Bill , it would have been more useful to me for you to say in the first place what could be improved in the image , I am learning coming from 26 years as an Astro imager, thought I would try something new.i know I have a lot to learn that's why I came on this forum, so lets not get off on the wrong foot .
Rog
This is just a quick
mock up regarding
composition only for this shot and similar
I would have gone for a composition like this
I would have used a constrained crop of a standard size - which this is
next, I would balance the bg and fg and ensure that noise reduction around the edge of the bird is carefully done, (which has not been in your image) - also bottom LH corner
don't reduce any noise in the bird and do not sharpen the bird, as you will only be sharpening noise
settings are another important factor - test these against the in camera histogram before you start
spot focus on the eye
my parameters would be - with the 300mm lens, hand held (I presume it is f5.6)
1/500th sec - f5.6 and auto ISO up to ISO 1000 - I would add 1/3EV to start with
(anyone who told you to use 1/100th sec is crazy - Pro or not)
the image looks a crop - so judge the ISO depending on your distance knowing you will crop
take RAW - process lightly to start with
Processing - take RAW and jpeg - when you can get your RAW processing up to the OCC jpeg quality then you are half way there