http://www.flickr.com/photos/53898309@N00/2212092272/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/53898309@N00/2211304917/ were used for the wings and both are from flickr by bansidhe's photostream

This is great! Excellent portrayal, and such an intense selection of stock! Your lighting, shadows, and blending is superb.
I love this!

Agree with jadedink. Good looking image all round.

Welcome back buddy . You did a good job on the rendition but I think the feather can be done better by smaller brush size of smudge tool, and the size of the bird a bit smaller will be better for the composition. Also, a more blurry background is better for the main focus of the image.Good luck !!
PS: I think you should check the second link, it doesn't lead to anywhere, at least with me, and the background looks like a pre-manipulated image because the mountain is similar to a 3D image.

Thanks, buddy. I fixed the second link and I'm working on a new background. Please stand by!

EDIT: And it is done. I did everything you reccomended, Langstrum. Thanks for the advice. Hope the new background works.

Hi, friend, were you lost? Nice to see you again...
It's a very beautiful composition; when we see about the roc on Wiki, we find only b&w illustrations. So, with your entry, we can make our imagination flows about how a roc could be. Really nice entry, GL!

I like the lighting.... Nice job!.... maybe little clean up on edges of wings, imo.
Great entry!

Thanks skeletor. Don't know how much more I can clean up, though...the edges are pretty sharp and clean as far as I can see and the grey outline is part of the feathers.

EDIT: Sorry, my bad! Wings have hopefully been fixed now...

Very nice work author,IMHO background is to much blurry...in high resolution near eye of the bird u have one small red glitch...maybe u could made edges a bit softer,in this case blur tool or smudge,but my advice is smudge...Nice to see u again author...best of luck

Good idea and nice result...

Thanks all! Erathion, I THINK I fixed it but I couldn't really locate the glitch to begin with...hope I blurred the right places :p

aahahaha nice idea!

Nice idea and great result

Very good chop Author

Thanks, everyone! After looking more at the high-res...I realized that I did indeed miss a few white blotches between the wings. Thanks Skeletor! This has been now fixed, and the tips of the wings have been smudged slightly as well.

Oh, the wings are great!