The trick to taking bird pictures is to focus on the eyes. If you can do that, everything else will come together. When a person looks at a photo, they are automatically drawn to one spot. If the eyes are the focal point, then the person will be drawn FIRST to the eyes, then to the rest of the photo.
Your pictures are very nice though! The first one is a little out of focus, but the second one is very very nice.
Basically the trick to photography is to practice, practice, practice! Also, be sure to have a large memory card, as that can enable you to take ALOT of pictures. With animal photography, even the professionals will take hundreds of photos and quite often only a few of them will turn out nice.
The problem with some of the rapid fire settings on digital cameras is that the camera does not focus in between shots. So if the bird moves further or closer to the camera, the photo will be out of focus.
I always find myself going back to the camera manuals and reading up on the features. I'm also in the process of getting a good photography book. There are a lot of websites on the net that have how to guides. I just got a new camera myself and I'm still learning all of it's features!