This is really interesting to compare and contrast with the original, each has its considerable virtues.

This one has the bird really pop the moment you look at it, but then a realisation creeps up behind saying this looks a bit false, a bit like a model of a bird that you’ve lit and photoed in a studio, rather than a live bird out in the wild. In contrast, Tempus Fugit’s edit takes a little more time to appreciate, but then feels far more like a bird in its environment, with its colours more in tune with the background, and the wider crop helping with that.

Now, magazine photos (or, as you say, scrolling on a phone) need that “pop”, they’ve so little time to keep you on the page.

It’s the “in its environment” feel that I personally prefer for my bird photographs (if I did, e.g., portraits, my choices would be very different), and so I’ve not invested the effort in learning how to get birds to “pop”, but it’s very much a matter of taste and purpose. I still mess with global luminance, but that’s because I might know better than my camera a good light curve.

In passing, I feel a little regret you didn’t have the RAW format form to play with (which might well be why your edits saw the colour noise).