[nirofo]

I still think it depends what you want the photograph for, if it's for a record shot to show the birds distinctive plumage in order to easily identify it, then the doctored image is ideal and does just that. If it's to be a more photogenic picture then it needs to be just that, a picture! In my mind in order to be a picture it must be worthy of framing or sticking in your favourite photo album, or just to be proud of and show off on the web or where ever. A picture is in the eye of the beholder, but having said that there are a few basic rules to make it stand out from the crowd. Some thought needs to go into the composition, I know birds don't stay around too long, but with practice it's possible to frame a bird in the most photogenic position in the frame before it flies off, usually on the thirds. (where have we heard that before?) Unless the bird is a particular speciality or rarity that you must get at any cost, then don't bother clicking it unless it's in a favourable position. In my book, favourable position is against an uncluttered background that makes the bird stand out, (not against the light unless you're after arty farty shots). Many birds are great posers and readily perch on fenceposts, branches, walls etc, try not to shoot them against a bright sky unless you're using fill in flash, otherwise you'll just have a dark fronted bird with little detail that you can see. I do a lot of my bird photography from a hide or the car window, I always try to approach early morning or late afternoon with the sun over my left shoulder so that it lights the front of the bird with the best light of the day. With a little planning and knowing where the sun rises and sets in different parts of the world at different times of the year, you can tune the lighting conditions to suit your needs. It pays to plan ahead, it's not always possible to get the shot you want without putting in a lot of time and effort, (not to mention money and marrital status). Very often you wish you could just get out of the hide, car etc and move that frond that's popped up right in front of the bird. Unless the fronds across it's face, beak, eye etc, take the click, it may be quite simple to clone it out without going over the top. If it doesn't work you can always dump it later. Don't doctor your bird shots by putting in items that were never there in the first place, a well known twitcher was accused of submitting bird records with accompanying photo's that were taken abroad and doctored to appear local, he dropped out of the scene.

nirofo.