First, let me be blunt - the only photo I cared for was the last one.  The first is over-saturated. That means I think you either used the "vivid" mode of your camera or you turned up the colors in Photoshop. In either case, you lost a lot of detail in the flower when you did it -it's hard to make out the veins of the flower.

That's a shame, because otherwise it's a great picture.

The second photo has been "posterized" - I know cratchet thinks that this was due to the upload, but I suspect you did it in photoshop to see how it looked. Personally, I don't like posterizing, I'd have rather seen the original photo. Other people might feel differently, though.

There are two problems with the 3rd picture. The first is a bad case of "animal butt syndrome" - this isn't your fault, animals don't like having their picture taken and tend to turn away while you're finding the right place to stand. In addition, the plants in the foreground are distracting.

The last photo, though - that has a ton of potential. The bird is clearly the focus of attention. The background isn't too distracting, but you can clearly see and understand the bird's environment. That one is very nice.

I'm also going to disagree with cratchet and Penny about your next step. Reading books and manuals is important, but they might just seem like boring nonsense to you right now. I would suggest that, instead, you go through magazines and posters and web sites and find photos that you like. Try to figure out why you like them, then try to take the same kinds of photos yourself. And shoot lots of photos! As you figure out what you like and don't like, and you're trying to take the same kinds of photos that is when the manuals and how-to books will be useful to you.

From the abstract view, I like 1964.

You may want to resize your shot before uploading them, as you can see we get a smaller picture then what is uploaded.  Actually the way the site is working, an 800x600 will give you a bigger picture (here) then what you have posted (plus you get a little better control over the finnished product.)

What to do to take better pictures?  If it wouldn't start a flame war, I'd say switch to Olympus.  But that would start a whole bunch of rukus here, so I won't.  Keep what you got, learn what it can do, and practice, practice, practice.

Great start, I thought your posturizing shot is kind of nice in a fun and artsy way... the first one is like "obvious troll" said too contrasty and vivid loosing some detail... my comment to it is to watch your framing, either come out more and also try getting more macro, go right inside the flower.  You can get some really nice shots that way.  The last one was a little dark and soft.  The foregroud has it's function in providing some perspective, but this one would have been better if you shifted the camera to the left. 

Hope all this helps...I'm new here but I know that is what it's all about here.