I'm as weird as Ted, as i too prefer the #2 shot because the most important part, the subject, has better detail despite the background in #1 shot being a lot nicer.
I had a tweak like poster NP, but tweaked the more detailed #2 shot instead - again, hope you dont mind Marilynne. Edits are just someone else's interpretation, and not Gospel, so you may not like mine, but my main idea was to retain and/or bring out the detail on the bird itself.
It was a great shot in terms of focus, nice and sharp, so extremely well done !