I am getting into bird photography.

It started with some hummingbirds, and now, I am planning on setting up a
blind this spring, and doing some serious photos.  I do it off the deck at
my cabin, so I can set up feeders, and a camera on a tripod with camo
netting.

My problem seems to be in a couple of areas.  Lighting and focus.

I have a Sony DSCH1, which is a decent 5.1 mp digital with a 12x optical
zoom.  It has all the other controls a $500 camera should have.  It has
multimode autofocus as well as all the manual settings.

I am having problems to have my birds illuminated, but not washed out by a
flash.  Particularly the iridescent colors in a hummer.  Do I need to set up
some additional lights on the area?  I shoot them at the feeder, and this
year, I am going to set up some perches made of natural wood, and focus on
the spot manually and just leave it there.  I will also be doing some shots
with the camera working in monitor AF mode.  So, I can fix the focus to one
specific point.

I can also adjust the aperture to get increased depth of field.  But, then,
by using the flash, wouldn't the aperture go up because of the increase in
light?

I really got started in this after the last of the season's hummers went
south.  So, now I have birds with less coloration to try the lights/flash
on.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

I have taken some decent photos, but it seems those were by using automatic
settings.  When I try to get it just right, and mess with setting the thing
manually, I don't get as good a pictures as just pointing and shooting.  I
have seen some spectacular pictures of hummers and other birds and wonder
how THEY do it.

Steve