amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

In M or Manual exposure mode, all you do is dial in +1 when making your settings. Watch the meter readout and either set shutter or aperture (or possibly the ISO) so that the readout indicates +1 stop. That's a lot and is going to make for a very high key shot in many situations... but should help with the bird against blue sky use you mention, where you're basically trying set up a correct exposure for the shadow side of the subject, while the rest of the scene is bright.

Exposure Compensation (which uses the control dial on the back of the camera too and reads out on the same scale as the meter) is ONLY applicable and usable to override AUTO exposure modes: Av, Tv, P. It will also work in M with Auto ISO enabled (which is no longer manual, is actually just another auto exposure mode).

Another way to set up the exposure is to first use one of the auto exposure modes with +1 Exposure Compensation dialed in.... make note of the exposure settings (chosen by you and the camera or the camera alone), then switch to M using the same settings. Ignore what the meter readout is telling you and DON'T center the indicator on the scale.

DTran

I haven't done pictures of birds in flight as I don't either have a fast cameras or a long lens but I would think. The bird is flying high above and is not covered by any trees so it's either front lighted or back lighted. So I would determine the exposure for each and switch between the two settings.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Nothing hard about it at all. Just point your camera up at the sky, look through the viewfinder, find the exposure meter, adjust either the f/stop so that the meter is at +1 stop (one above the middle) or use the ISO to adjust the exposure to +1 EV. You're all set. But if a cloud comes over, or the subject flys low and the background changes, then your exposure might be off again. But as long as you are shooting a bird in the general direction of the sky where you adjusted these settings you should be fine.