Some images are fine out of the camera (to my taste), specially when using 14 bits when capturing, as Nikon's D3 is this case.
Note the only think I did was crop and sharpen the bird selectively.
Usually, photographers like to expose to the shadows in cases of dual tonality like the GBHs, since it was better to tone down the whites than pull the darks, the latter conductive to noise.
In my case, I find that pulling my exposure 1/3 of a stop at capture, gives me enough contrast and density to make my post-processing a lot easier. The whites here are not blown at all (by the numbers) and the mid and dark tones don't show any noise to my eyes. No noise reduction was used in the post-processing.
Before and After (Not all need an extreme)
