Guarding the Feeder

We have two feeders. One belongs to this little guy, and the other is the buffet for about 12 hummers including another male.

Each morning, this little guy stands guard front and center in our oak tree. About 10 a.m. he moves into a shadier location deeper within the tree.

Any thoughts on how to brighten at least his head with some pp? I used spot metering, but perhaps evaluative would have served me better?

I shot this with a rented 100-400 which was sent back yesterday

Guidance is welcomed!

I didn't look at the EXIF of this image, but I think that ISO is fairly high. If you shot this in RAW, then you can apply some noise reduction in DPP, and then selectively increase lighting in Photoshop. However, I honestly don't think much processing would work here as the "grains" are quite visible and will become even more visible after any processing.

The key in hummingbird photography is to use multiple flashes. This is something that I haven't tried yet myself, but it is what I have learned so far. There are many very good hummingbird photographers here on the forum, so I will let them judge this, and possibly tell us more how it's best done.

This is a pretty bird and nice image nevertheless.

Thank you, et078! I'll search for that technique.

Yes, the ISO was set to 400 (gear: XSI, and a rented 100-400 IS on a tripod)
Every time I tried reducing the iso and increasing the aperture, the image blurred.

I've always had noise issues with my XSI and have considered sending it for a tune up, but don't want to be one of those, "there's something wrong with my camera" people.

More tips from others would be appreciated!