Actually, since you have your "OK to edit" tag on I thought I would throw out another way this could be cropped. I also did a bit of tweaking in Capture NX on the background, maw and beak.
About a 50% crop - at 300mm I can't get a complete starling in frame at about 6-7ft away. I shall have to go back and look at the originals.
Thanks Sabbath - that shows why I allow editing as it is always good to see images from a different perspective - gives it more punch - or should I say "peck"