Paul ,post is not my strong point !! I feel the bird isn't in focus,always try to put the active FP on the eye if possible,if that was the case,than there must be a reason for the bird not being terribly sharp. it might be worth digging into that?
. It looks like the light was harsh...maybe towards the middle of the day,this makes the brights very bright and the shadows very dark ..obviously the first way to deal with this is to shoot more towards the beginning or end of the day,when the light is softer if you have to shoot under clear skys. In the middle of the day light clouds can really help as it softens the light(acting like a massive diffuser). Try pulling back the contrast a bit see how that works.
Paul give the lads and lasses as much detail as possible ,You've included the techs,now. but not what lens body maybe exts etc. What did your histgramme look like mate?? If you haven't done much in post there are reasons why the image looks this way. Mate is the image cropped ,again something the folks need to know ,cropping effects your image quality
Buddy,great POV great patience to try and wait to get something you liked.....you did really well to get the upper parts of the bird clear of the veggies !! There's good stuff to build on here
Hopefully one of the more experienced folks in post processing can help you more.
Finally always think about where in frame you want your subject...leave room for the subject to move into ie leave more room to the side the subject is looking,don't treat that as a rule just muse it while framing
I hope sommit is of use to you TFS
stu