Editing the attached image was made significantly more easy with the smart selection mask. The masking process of the bird took about 15 seconds with just a bit of touchup with the mask brush. The natural foreground lighting was very dark, after masking the bird was edited independently.
Where is the original image for the comparation?
I can post it later today, grandchildren interuptus!
Here's a low res sRGB copy of the original file. I couldn't make the bird prominent in the image to my liking without masking it.
I don't often use masking to save an image unless there is a look I like, I definitely only use images where you can't tell there was a mask edit. In Photo-PAINT 2024 the performance increase in the smart selection mask has me using it a bit more. I could get the image light enough but then the bird didn't stand out well. I tired the light tools and as a global adjustment it affected the green in the tree. I masked the bird and used the light tool and a tone curve to adjust the bird.
I have played a little with your original photo in PhotoPaint without Smart Selection: