They Don't Call Me The Great Blue Heron For Nothing!
I've been on a kick concentrating on early morning or late afternoon light for my bird photography. Here is an example of what non-standard lighting can do.
Canon 7D with the 500L f4 lens with 1.4II extender @ 1/1250, f5.6, ISO 400, -1/3 exposure compensation.
Very slight crop for composition purposes, and a small patch of light rose colour clonned out on the upper left of the image. The usual despeckling after sharpening of the background.
Cheers,
Mike