Nice head turn and eye contact. I agree with Bhargava about the negative space at the top. You could have composed by adding a bit more space at the bottom. Getting it a bit bigger in the frame would have helped to remove the extra space. I agree hide is quite useful while birding. You could also very slowly move towards the bird, taking care it doesn't fly off (generally crawling ).

It is good that you have mentioned about the cloning done. At IndiaWilds will advise against cloning as that reduces our creativeness as a photographer and adds the designer part in that. Try to experiment in the field and get the best possible composition excluding the distractions as much as possible. Thanks for sharing.