One of the persistent challenges I face when I take a photograph is arranging the elements in the frame so that they are pleasing and draw the viewer into the photograph and to the subject. I’m finding that as I try tracking fast moving birds like tiny warblers, I’m so preoccupied with tracking the subject that I tend to place the subject smack dab in the middle of the frame without regard to anything more than getting the subject sharp. Sometimes it works…sometimes it doesn’t. My post yesterday worked because the other elements in the frame, the branches, kept the eye focused on the subject. I think this center-placed subject also works because the branches lead the eye to the subject. And, because yellow and blue are complimentary colors, nothing competes with the bright yellow subject. This is a Prothonotary Warbler, one of the 38 species of warblers that migrate though Magee Marsh every year. The spiky “hairdo” is because this bird, a cavity nester, is entering and leaving the nest cavity and the sap from the tree where it’s nesting is staining its head feathers.
Try moving your focus point off center, that would move the bird off center. You will have to contend with a bird facing the wrong way from time to time. Then there’s always the crop tool, you probably have enough resolution to crop while maintaining the same aspect ratio if you feel the need to do that.