I tried a similar approach but found that, although the tree leaves/branches are much more realistic appearing, the bird still lacks "pop". The bright red stands out much better, even though the background is overexposed when I used flash. I will continue to experiment to see if I can find a better compromise.
Thank you for your effort and reply.
Jim

Thank you. That is useful information. I do have a Better Beamer but it is still in the package. Will pull it out and try it. For some reason, I thought it was primarily used to gain distance not focus but I can see the reasoning.
Most of the birds are concentrated in a relatively small area. Here in southern Baja most vegetation is concentrated near houses where people pour the water to it. While not in a blind per se, I do not have to move the tripod very far between shots so the flash is not as cumbersome as it might be in another setting.
I will try again and repost some new shots. Please watch so I can get your thoughts about those.
Jim

Yes it was. Iso 100, shutter speed 1/250, 5.6 aperature.

I am trying to learn how to use fill in flash for some of my bird shots. I tend to be lazy and not get started until the sun is well above the horizon. As a consequence I get a lot of opportunities with birds deep in vegetation and often in deep shadows. When I try to use natural lighting I often get shadows across the bird; I can brighten the entire photo, but the shadows remain. This AM I tried using flash. I do not know enough yet to use manual settings for the flash so this set was shot with ETTL with a Canon 70D, a 400 mm/5.6, Speedlite 430 on a tripod. The Cardinal was about 30-40 feet away and obviously the flash did not bother him. I took about 30 shots over 2-3 minutes, about 1/2 with natural lighting and the other 1/2 with flash. These 2 shots were shot within a few seconds of each other so the natural lighting should have remaned the same for both of them. Please feel free to comment on my technique. For the record, I am also a neophyte with PP. I currently use PSE 12.

Fill in flash used; before PP

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Same shot after PP with PSE 12

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Natural lighting shot within seconds of 1st shot

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Thank you. Photogenic birds and good light help.

Thank you. Down here people refer to them as "black cardinals".

The bird's distinct, beautiful colors help, but you have done great job of making him stand out from the background but also keeping his perch in focus. How far away was he? At F8 you would have had only a few inches DOF if he were closer than 30-40 feet.

Several of our year round birds are telling me it is spring and love is in the air. A number of our birds nest twice per year, once early in the sage and mesquite. The second time later in the summer near springs and oases.
These were taken at approximately 30-45 feet with a Canon 70D and a 400/5.6 lens on a monopod.

Cactus Wren gathering nesting material

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Phainopepla female

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Phainopepla male

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I recently posted a topic concerning microadjustment in a Canon 70D camera with a Canon 400 5.6 lens. http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-279511-1.html
In short this lens autofocused well at 5.6 but the focus became progressively worse until at 16 or 22, the picture became almost unreadable. I rapidly came to the conclusion that it was not my technique (although there is certainly room for improvement there) or a microadjustment that needed to be performed . I took the camera and lens to the Canon Repair Facility in Costa Mesa. Bottom line, camera is fine and lens is broken.
This is a new lens, but unfortunately it was given to a friend as a gift, he already had one and so he and I swapped lenses. Canon will not honor the warranty because I was not original purchaser. Do not comment on how I should have lied, etc. (yes, I should have). The repair request came back, "USM broken, needs new assembly, lens tube and other parts". Estimate is $564. I realize that "ca ca" happens, so I may be out of luck, but my question is, "What would have caused this?" This lens does not have 200 shots on it, it has never been dropped or banged. Originally it seemed to work well (to my neophyte eyes). I feel bad I have to pay once but I really do not want to pay twice; ie, if I get the lens back and this happens again because of something I am doing or not doing.
Canon is trying to work something out with me; we will see.

We have gone twice in the last few years and each time spent longer there. The preceding comments about the darkness and dampness of the rain forest are certainly correct even during the dry season (a relative term). Where we got our best bird photography opportunities was in Cano Negro. We stayed at the Hotel de Campo Cano Negro but there are other hotels there. This is reasonably close to the Arenal area. The advantage here was on boat trips down the river. The jungle canopy was open over the river but was thick on the shores. Allowed lots of light for your shots. If you want to see shore, water, and riverside birds and reptiles, this is a great place. Boat ride was $60 USD for 3 hours with a guide. Very experienced in getting close to the birds and we were taking pictures of Kingfishers (4 species)and herons (5-6 species) from 5-25'.
Our first trip was with point and shoot cameras with limited zoom abilities and many shots did not need cropping.
Hope to go back soon.

Your pictures give me another reason to want to visit the UK soon. Great background on all but love 6.

Approximately 30 feet. This PM I am going to set up similar test with mirror lock up to see if mirror slap affecting sharpness. Also going to push iso up to shorten shutter speed. This has been helpful to me to see the effects of the different settings on my camera without getting hung up on the subject. No pretty birds to look at in the picture.

I am coming to the conclusion that I need to keep my shutter speed up even when using a good tripod. I am shooting a Canon 70d with a 400 5.6 lens. I have PSE 12 and LR5 but am a real neophyte with both. I plan on learning how to use both but have general quesion now.
If my primary interest is sharpness (birds) which is easiest to work with in post processing, a high iso (800-6400) or camera motion secondary to slow shutter speed (1/20-1/100)?
I understand that getting the best image in the camera is always the ideal but I am finding that sometimes that is not so easy to do. Faster lenses, getting closer to the subject, low isos, fast SS, use of flash, are all goals to have but again, not always obtainable in the moment.

Thank you for your comments. This lens does not have IS so that was a non issue. I had the Nest locked down and I used a remote for shutter activation so I assume it is mirror slap. That would account for the gradual degradation as the shutter speed slowed.
I had no idea that the mirror slap could introduce that much degradation of the focus. I will try mirror lock and see if that makes a difference.
I considered sending both camera and lens to Canon as I am currently staying only a few miles from their headquarters but I would really like to learn how to do this for future reference (hopefully for future lenes).

Carter,
I was a little further away than that , approx 30'; also my ruler was about 60 degrees so I will change that. I did refocus at each f stop. I am going to get a sharper target so I can discern the focus a little better.
What surprised me the most was that 5.6 was the sharpest and it became progressively more blurred as my aperature decreased. I thought that with increasing DOF that any focusing issues would have been covered up.
Also I used the center focus point; there have been a number of rumors concerning that point being faulty. Maybe I will try using it and a 2nd set using one of the focal spots adjacent to it.
Carter, I appreciate your advice about the Nest head and the Abeo deal at BH. I did get in on the deal.