Robin,
I shoot a lot of Egrets and Great White Herons here in Florida and my settings are the same as I use for all my wildlife shooting: center-weighted exposure and single center-point focus. I use these for both stationary birds and birds in flight; front-lighted or back-lighted. I've seldom gotten blown out whites with this setup and it gives me the freedom to move from white Herons to Great Blues without having to fool around changing my exposure settings. I do not use any exposure compensation. Seems to work with my Canon 7D.

Jim