i have found the PSD netwrok an essential way to tweak and perfect the look of the magpie, In the end there where five layers;
Colour Layer - This obviously allows for colours to be placed and blended
Specular Layer - White parts of the layer add specular and black parts remove any specular, any transparency caused problems with colour being picked up from the layer below so black had to be used. This layer has been used for the beak and the claws. A colour specular was added to the feathers, this was a gradient from blue to purple and gave the feathers iridescence.
Bump layer - adds a bump map to certain parts, the dynamic range of an image was shortened to give a more noticeable change between black and white as this helped to give a bump. This has been used on the beak, certain parts of the body to enhance feathers and the legs.
Diffuse - This proved to be a really useful layer, it's good leveling out the brightness of the colour layer so everything is visible without dark spots. This was used around the eyes and head to allow the head and eyes to be seen properly.
Here is a test video, 4 of these have been rendered with tweaks happening along the way. This is what i think will be the final render. The grass and HDRI image are there to give an impression of the final surroundings for the magpie.
