+1 .. i use compensation a lot .. on my monitor there appears to be a bit of a halo starting in #2 .. and i would have cloned out the gray spots in both images .. those branches in #2 ... and everything except the branch he's standing on in #1
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may I suggest shooting in manual mode. you could first set the exposure on a trial object under similar lighting conditions and then you should (in theory) not face the over exposure problem. the only caveat being when the birds fly under a branch, they will be under exposed by about 2 stops.
I agree with you though avian photography is really difficult to plan for.