Baby bird Creature

Well,to begin with,I´m not a very experienced 3D modeler.I´ve played around a little with Pixologic´s great program Sculptris,which is so great because you get it for free and what you can do with it even as an unexperienced beginner.
From that point,my first critisizm on this work would be that there wasn´t a description of the tools used for it,so I can only assume that either Sculptris itself or the famous ZBrush,its "big brother",has been used on the baby bird creature(which I found in the group "EliteArtists" deviations).
First of all,the title of the work caught my eye,it is,as I think,a very well chosen title;of course it describes the work and the intention of what was to be depicted,so it´s also just a very well chosen theme overall,being quite original(which is hard nowadays) and waking one´s interest.
Which worked so well that I took a closer look at the thumbnail-so that I HAD to enlarge it.
Because-and that´s what fascinated me from the beginning-this model is,in terms of posing,lighting,presentation and overall composition,so fantastically well done that,BEFORE enlarging,it was sheer impossible for at least my eyes to recognise it as a digital 3D model.
In fact,I clicked on it and was so curious about it because I thought it was an actual,handsculpted Miniature.
And this is where (in my opinion) the expertise of a pro modeler goes to hell.
Because when seeing this in a larger version and still having to take a close look to make out it´s digital,that´s when you can be sure you don´t need to know much about 3D modelling to see that it´s extremely well done.
As far as I can judge it,this effect mostly comes from the lighting,then from the texture;the way light comes from above instinctively makes your eyes think they´re seeing a small model,maybe DEPICTING something big.
This boosts the way you conceive it as very realistic,I guess.
The textures (both the painted and the sculpted ones) seize that and take it further.Especially the overly realistic look of the base and e.g. the hand in the foreground create a look of a physically existing miniature that was painted.
Very well painted.
What gives away the digital nature of the model are the same things,anyway:texture and light.
The way the reflecting parts do their reflecting seems just a little too shiny for me,and especially in the upper half e.g. the left shoulder and chest parts,the texture is just a little too blurry to still believe the illusion.
It looks like the creature was thickly coated in a too thick,too slimy medium to be real.It´s just a little too slick.
These things are what eventually give away the digital model in it.
The main picture I have of this piece comes out of those "giveaway" features being usually just the normal,3D modelled look.
Which means even if the WHOLE model had them,it STILL would be an extraordinarily well sculpted piece,looking digitally sculpted like every other highly professional model in the industry.
But in this piece those features only affect limited parts of the model and,with some tedious extra refining work,could also be wiped out completely,leaving it restlessly to the artist to tell that it´s NOT a "real" sculpted miniature.
Despite my personal taste missing some feathers or other birdlike stuff setting this apart from your generic troll/oger/huge monster design,and the upper half of the beak looking a little deformed,I think this is

the best 3D model I´ve seen so far.

But again,of course I´m not an experienced artist.
Your second completed 3D creature might become even better,Mr.Evans.

This is my first critique ever,I hope it was of some value.