I opened the image as a smart object, then made a smart object copy layer.
Went back into ACR and boosted the saturation and vibrancy of the bird on the bottom layer and
reduced saturation on the top one.
Then rasterized the layers, added layer mask to the top (low saturation) layer and revealed the brighter bird.
Not the ideal option, but I dealt with the white halo by using a small blur tool to brush it away. Then used the sharpen tool on the eye and a few feather edges.
Just trying some techniques that are new for me.


forum discussion http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=27572062
original image by Jola: