A camera's meter tries to make the average to equal 18% middle grey - which is why if you take a "perfectly exposed shot of snow it ends up being s dull grey. On the flip side (your first photo) anything it reads as "dark" will be exposed as to lighten it up to equal 18% middle grey - which is why your greenery (which is fairly dark in real life) looks nice and lush but the small amount of lighter color (the bird) is overexposed. Digital goes REALLY quickly to blowing out whites and crushing details into blacks. A bit more than slide film does IMO. It can only handle a VERY small amount of real contrast before one end goes beyond it's ability to see. What you might have been able to do in the first shot is underexpose it to get the light details in the bird's feathers, and in Photoshop bring UP the details in the shadows - it doesn't look like it would have entirely crushed to black just yet. To be honest, I like both shots a lot - even though you seem to be dismayed that the 1st one has blown out highlights, it still looks nice and lush. -Lew ;-)