Thank you so much Jeff. That means a lot coming from you. The bright sunlight wasn't doing me any favours. Contrary to what I remembered, I hadn't blown the highlights, but was struggling to preserve them when processing and exporting, so I probably exposed about right. It was the jpegs that were blown.
I used the default Photolab process, then raised the exposure of the whole scene. I definitely lowered the highlights on the bird and possibly for the whole scene - can't quite remember, but I think it could be improved. Unfortunately I clipped his wing on my favourite capture, but you could see his eyes on that one - a beautiful bird!
At some point I will have another go and as you say, selectively process the bird and the background separately - I think that is what is needed. I've just started playing with Capture One and I think that may have a bit more latitude for processing on shots like this.