Playing with the exposure

I am reading a brilliant book by Michael Freeman about exposure at the moment so I was using this very obliging Blackbird at lunchtime to play around with getting the right exposure for a black object.

I have been trying to get a decent photo of a Jay but they have a very annoying habit of sitting in the middle of trees, making it very difficult to get an unobstructed view!  The extra is the best I have managed so far - I'll keep trying :-)