Hey Randall,

What a cool photo!!! I don't know if the question is whether or not you used levels too much, I think the question is could you have masked it better? To answer your question (LOL, my question), I think that you could have masked the levels a bit more effectively. Also, if you take the history brush in photoshop, you can delete the effects of the lost highlights in the feathers....just use the slider to the opacity that makes you feel comfortable and the image natural.

Nice catch.

Cheers
James