Bird shot in dipping sunlight

Hi, i took this one last night i am having trouble getting flickr stuff on so i have to copy and paste, i not sure if that the way to do it normally..

This was the original picture i took.

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This one i put into photoshop and played with the levels and shadows and here is what i got, note the bright light round the side of the bird.

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This one i used a background copy and a layer mask and brushed the subject to bring it out but keep the background dark, i really like the boom the bird is on as it looks gold lol anyway here is the one with the layer mask.

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has anyone got any suggestions on the best way to edit them or is there a way i could have got a cracking pic straight from the camera.

here is another one i took and edited like number two

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original photo

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

NB: I know not very much about cameras and its a bit of a hit or miss at the moment