Ahh! my favorite part of painting!! This is the step where I just look at the main colors and pick out a dark, middle and light value of those colors.  Then, looking at the photo, I just put the color where I see it.  This is the most free and refreshing step of painting.  As you can see from the picture, I haven't totally blocked everything in yet, I still have the beak and the talons.  The photo I am copying doesn't include the talons so I'm going to have to do some studying of those and come up with some that fit the composition.