Drombo

I'm new to this forum and to photography in general, so I'm not really qualified to "critique."  Since I really enjoy this image, however, I hope you can maybe find some use in my admiration....

It's really well balanced.  The body has a flat, artificial quality--the texture of the feathers and their sheen generates an almost painted look.  This makes the resolution of the bird's head, with its piquant ruddiness, all the more interesting by contrast.  I also like how that contrast serves to mount the head, as if it were an art object on display.  This creates two gentle visual ironies (if there aren't such things as "visual ironies", forgive me: I'm new).  First, the fluid, triangular mass of the body looks like it's been brushed in, using, as I said before, a foreign medium.  It comes off as mimetic, whereas the head does not.  But secondly, as the resolution increases, the head also begins to initiate greater degrees of symmetry.  This formal contribution climaxes with the comb, but is also broken by it, as each successive part intimates further depth, connecting the bird to the unfocused background that allowed it form to begin with.  There's a logic to all this that keeps my eyes moving in a cycle--from the bottom right, to the upper left, back to the bottom right again. 

Anyway, thanks for the delightful and disciplined visual experience.  Really subtle and persuasive!  It's a happy shot, and I'm happy I saw it.