I feel this one is too dark, even hard to tell that it's white.

Sorry, I wasn't saying it wasn't white, just a little too dark IMO. However, I'm often wrong, just ask my husband.

I like the capture, though while examining the High resolution version, it appeared that there was some sort of cross hatch pattern going on subtly throughout not only the "Sparkle" in it's eyes and water dop on the beak. Were you using a specialty filter in front of the lens, or am I just seeing things?
Nice capture just the same.'

The 'star effect' can usually be achieved by using a smaller aperture. The image is out of focus though.

the focus is right on "spot" in the high resolution photo...on the eyes and shoulder of the bird. There was no filter used in the making of this photo, and it was taken with a longer lens, at higher zoom to compress the bird and was actually shot through a window if i remember correctly.

I think I know that the pattern I mentioned above is being caused by, and possibly why, though focused on the eyes and shoulder, there appears to be two instances of ghosting or residual edging along the the back (wing area), where the sun is shining brightest on.
When shooting this, do you recall it being on an angle through a screen door with one or two pains of glass?
I brought the high resolution image into photoshop and applied the equalize image adjustment, which tends to show greater difference between subtle contrasty portions of an image and the horizontal lines (maybe of a screen) ar

are much more evident, which, if you were using a polarizing UV filter (if even as a lens protector), depending on it's orientation, would make the screen horizontal or vertical strands show more, even if focused through. As for the sparkle, which I have seen grow during longer exposures from lights at night, a screen would explain why the sparkle appears to be broken into three sections at each point. The ghosting on it's back could be explained as refraction from shooting through a pain or two of glass at an angle. Still a good capture. Thanks for sharing it with us.