Three problems with image quality as it stands:
-- the background is too busy and the birds too small a component for them to command the center of attention
-- can't tell if they are clear
-- looks to me like there is chromatic aberration showing up (green borders on the right side of verical contours, particularly on the left side of the image. Lens and chromatic aberration correction in ACR might resolve much of that. #1519655

Luckily the birds are solid black so selecting them is a breeze. Just use the magic wand tool set to contiguous and click on each one in turn while holding down the shift key. Then control + J to place them on another layer.

You can now apply a screen blend on the background at maybe 50% opacity or whatever it takes. You could also apply a blur to the background and mask out the foreground trees. #10613783

Good job on correcting the lens defects, too. I'm sure Dale's suggestions will make make a difference. But the big thing to recognize is that now that you have the birds isolated from the background, you can do anything you want to either layer. As Dale said, you can make whatever generalized and/or localized changes to your background layer you want. But you can also make any change you want to the foreground layer that contains only the birds. I tend set adjustment layers to my foreground layer to clipping masks. I also group the foreground/background sets of layers in separate groups so I can tun them on and off as a set.

I like the composition of the original post. Since you see the entire flock and there are some birds trailing behind paired with the horizontal aspect ratio, you get the strong sense of movement from right to left of the birds flying through the trees. The downside that I see is that the birds end up pretty small, lose contrast with the background, and weaken their subject matter impact. I think the cropped image may be a stronger composition and hold one's attention better.

On the original, you might think about cloning out the one bird only halfway into the frame on the lower right border.
#10613853

I think this could be really neat after you fix the background. I am hoping their wing markings will really stand out once you do your edits.

I do think this has potential! #10614943

I love that you have so much wildlife in your backyard, and I can hardly wait to see what you come up with on this one. #10614958

I like your texture. I do think, though, that when you get Dale's suggestions worked out, you may not need it anymore. Then it becomes a option and something you can chose to do as part of your creativity rather than use it as salvage mechanism.

I think this is a great image that deserves all the effort you are putting into it. #10615156

I'm learning right along with you Beth! #10615265

My comments:
-- I'm glad you were able to bring back the color in the blackbird's wings, but,
-- I think the selection method you used in Edit One was better than the method you used in Edit 3. In Edit 3, there is a white outline around most of the birds. But there are also a number of edits that can create that unintended effect so I don't know for sure where they came from.

-- I can't see what Dale's "snow" is. Personally, if you think you need a texture, I like your original texture. I don't manage to use them often, and don't pretend to use them effectively, but I normally want a texture to make the picture look like it is a medium other than a photograph. That's what your original texture accomplished for me. The original texture might have been too heavy. You could back off on it a little. When I use textures, I merge all the layers into a single layer on top (e) and apply the texture to that layer. Then I can use the opacity slider to reduce its effect and let the original image show through some, or even mask the texture out altogether in some areas.

-- it looks to me like in reworking the edits per Dale's tutorial, you lost the chromatic aberration correction. I think the green fringe on the trees is back.

Lots of work, lots of learning going into this one, Beth. Hope you're enjoying working this hard.
#10619223

When I first saw this image it reminded me of one of those optical illusion shots with the shape of the birds doubling as spaces between the branches of the trees, if that makes any sense.. #10619634