It's a great image, with the eye drawn from the birds up the musician's legs to the flute, which is aimed back down to the birds. Wonderful composition. I'm glad you gave him a euro - seems to me the street artists and homeless ought to be compensated somewhat for helping to make good photos.
Hmmm...good question, I generally feel bad taking photos of people in need. In this case I stood there listening to him for few minutes (he was quite good!), gave him a euro (he winked), snapped the photo and moved on.