Bird in Flight Question

[Mike T]

I've been seeing a lot of great bird in flight pictures here lately. I've been having a hard time mostly with camera settings. I should probably start with shooting RAW but I use JPG. I try to find something gray in the sun and set the exposure to that and put the camera in M mode. Most times for everything else I shoot AV. I get some good shots but more throw aways than keepers. How do you folks set your camera?

Thanks,
Mike