bird but no bush

[behind_a_shutter]

I want to know how can I make the image better. In the context of the white wall its sitting on and the background.. What bird is this anyway?

Location: Chikmanglur, India
Camera: Canon SX20 IS
Shutter Speed: 1/50sec
Aperture: f/5.7
ISO: 200
Metering Mode: Pattern
Exposure Comp: 0

[AndrewPDX]

That's a cool bird! At first glance, I thought I was looking at a bird with it's mouth open really wide. The plume on top of its head looked like the upper beak. It's actually a lot cooler as a plume! I wish this aspect of the bird was highlighted more, though I don't really know what you could have done differently with this shot to make that pop more. Just something to keep in mind for next time. The white fence is a bit tough- I'll leave that to some of the more technically minded contributors on this site. Hopefully they'll have an answer for you.

Also, if you post where you took the shot, someone might be able to identify the bird. Good luck, thanks for sharing!

[lee kivi]

I agree, the white wall is overpowering. I think I would have gone for more of a head shot rather than the whole bird and eliminated the wall.

[mk12mod]

That is a cool looking bird. A head shot could be the best angle if there were no alternatives to changing your position relative to the bird. Great shot nonetheless.

[Kate Howells]

This looks like a Red-whiskered Bulbul, which are common in India.

It is a pity that the bird is facing away from you. The whites in the image are over exposed. When I have an image with areas of both white and black, I normally expose for the white so that I don't loose any detail. It is a lot easier to recover detail from darker areas than it is from blown whites.
Minimum iso for bird photography is 400. I would have used an aperture of f8.
Remember that your shutter speed should be at least 1 and a half times your focal length. So if you are focussing at 200mm, you shutter speed needs to be at least 1/300.
Hope this helps!