Palliated Woodpecker

[Riverside]

I am concerned these are over-processed?

[A.M.D.A.]

Wow, nice shots!

Pileated's are usually shy and skittish birds, you've captured this one very nicely. I love the "profile view" and the blurred background. My favourite is #2, because the bird's head is angled a notch lower, and because his tail-tip isn't chopped off. Also, I prefer the composition. Good work.

[Loupey]

First off, congrats on getting shots of a very wary bird!

I think the blacks are not black enough (especially in #2) - as if you pushed the shadows a bit too hard.

Nice work!

[Riverside]

Thank you so much!
Black makes it so easy to loose detail, I was wary of tampering with it.
(I am particularly pleased as it was taken with my new Tamron 18-270 VR lens (hand held) with a focal length of 250 mm.)
I appreciate your input!

[GB1]

Welcome.

Maybe. I don't know if I would have thought they were over-processed w/o you mentioning it, however. Wildlife shots are difficult to get and they are often softer than we hoped they would be, once we review the image It's hard to know exactly how well off you are here because the compression is turned up too high and you're getting JPEG compression artifacts (squiggly little lines) around the edges. Try reposting with images somewhat closer to the ~ 300 kb limit. The bird's a bit dead center in the top one but at the same time I like the context whereas the cropped one is missing that.. Not sure where that leaves it (Arggg)

[Riverside]

I am using Photobucket for posting images, and I don't believe they support a file size that large.
I think you would find much the same had I been able to show you a 300 kb file size
Not only were the images re-saved far too often (even I could see they were deteriorating) I worked on the originals not duplicates, and I know better.
It was stretching it hand by holding, using a focal length of 270 mm anyway for wildlife.
I do appreciate your input .