Uniquely colored eye

This is a great cormorant preening its feathers in early morning sunlight in China. This is the species of bird that fishermen use in both Japan and China to catch a fish. I took this picture after a dawn session with one of these fishermen on the Li River in Guilin. As soon as the sun rose above the distant horizon, I captured this telephoto shot showing the unique color in the eye. Because I was using a 100 to 400 mm zoom, I specifically chose a relatively small lens aperture to make sure the feathers in the foreground were as sharp as the eye and the beak. The feathers protruded just enough to be on a different plane than the head. I have always found cormorants difficult to photograph because they aren't particularly beautiful birds. However, this works for me because of the lighting in this extreme close-up. My settings were 1/160/ f/11, and 1000 ISO.