Red Bellied Woodpecker
First, let me set the stage. I was on the north side of White Rock Lake in Dallas with my Siggy 500, a TC and my tripod. I was there to find some perched birds to shoot. That area has been good to me before. Sure enough there were tons of birds but all were busy moving around, butter butts, waxwings, red winged blackbirds, etc... With the set-up I had, the TC removes autofocus so I have to manually focus while tracking with the lens. It's pretty much near impossible for me. I really needed my 100-400 IS lens, but, oh well. Anyhow, I spotted this red bellied woodpecker setting up its new digs. It was moving all around the tree and hammering all the time. But I did not want to risk losing it by removing the TC and then reattaching everything so this is what I got. They could be sharper and the light was very harsh. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon. I also had to contend with some branches in the way that I manually blurred out of focus. Oh and I swear I did not try to oversaturate the colors like this. This is how the colors basically were in the RAW image. I added just a tad of selective color and used the shadows and highlights function to help with the harsh light, but I have no idea why the colors are so vivid, almost too vivid. Anyhow, here it is in its 700mm glory. 
I compared these to some other shots of red belled woodpeckers on the Net and except for those professional photogs, some of whom are right here:thumb. I suppose these aren't that bad given the conditions.
I compared these to some other shots of red belled woodpeckers on the Net and except for those professional photogs, some of whom are right here:thumb. I suppose these aren't that bad given the conditions. 
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My only feedback, I guess that's an OOF branch or something on the right of some of the images, which is fairly distracting. This is one of the really annoying things with bird photography, there's always that one stick in the way!!
And have you tried any pin taping tricks? If your converter is reporting to the camera, you might try blocking that communication so it still tries to auto focus, though "tries" might be the key word in that sentence. I'm guessing you've got the sigma 50-500, so it'd be F/9, but the camera might still try and occasionally succeed.
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Thanks Robin. I agree that the OOF branches are distracting but I am not very good, or have the patience, to clone out so much.
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Thanks Glenn for the comments and tip.
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Hi Stephen. I really like #4 and the way he is peeking back out of the hole.
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How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
Thanks Big Al. Number 2 did turn out well even with the distracting branches that I probably should just clone out.
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Yes, that was one I really liked. I had seen other photographers with shots like that one and I always wanted one like that. I was lucky that the opportunity arose.
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In pic no. 4 it almost seems as if the birdie is popping its head out and asking you "Got your pics mate?"