Is defaulting to a close-up and throwing out the background a crutch in wildlife photography?

Particularly when it comes to birding, 99% of shots I see from hobbyists are ultra-closeups of the animal's head. Yes they're fun to take and many are genuinely good, but I feel like there's not much actual substance or story.

And I'm no better. When I saw pic related, my first instinct was to get a portrait of a single cormorant. It was only cause I'm limited to 300mm of zoom that I got this shot which I think is more compelling.

Do you know any photographers that use the background more meaningfully in their shots? Is this just a birding thing?