I love this shot. We have cardinals that seem to love our backyard for some reason. Maybe it's the hardwood trees. I've been trying to get a good close-up but with my 3x zoom it's rather difficult. Beautiful shot, it's going straight to my favs.
I bought Neat Image, it clears up a lot of the noise in my photos, do you have image stabalization on your camera? Did you use a tripod. I heard even with a tripod, set the timer and then hands off the camera to get the most stable image. Anyway I just wish I would get the color depth and as close-up as you have gotten here. Great angle as well.