That’s a nice photo Chris, although it is tough shot. The Sulphur Crested Cockatoo is a white bird and if you expose for the highlights to bring out the texture and detail in the feathers on the sunlit neck and the eye of the bird, the underbelly and wings will probably record as too dark. It might prove challenging to bring out any detail in the shadows whilst controlling the noise.
If you expose for the underbelly so that it falls into the mid tones range, where you could bring out some nice detail and texture in the feathers, then the sun lit neck is likely to blow out, recording as a featureless white glow with the sky becoming very light as the blue tones saturate.
The overall contrast between the detailed bird and the featureless sky can also be a problem – if you over process any element then you can easily end up with artefacts like a glow or halo around the bird.
In my experience, the tonal range of white bird underbellies, set against a bright sky with sun falling on other parts of the bird’s anatomy, is generally too great for the sensor to record in one hit, even when shooting RAW where you have more exposure latitude.
However, asking the bird to stay put, so you can expose for the highlights and then take a second shot for the darker tones, just isn’t an option in this case!
I’ve attached a photo I took of a Whistling Kite where I exposed for the feathers and as you can see, the rest of the image is blown out to a featureless white background. If I had followed the cameras recommended auto exposure for the scene, I would have got a nicely exposed sky and a black bird silhouette! Instead, I over exposed by around 1 ½ stops.
Cheers
Dennis