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In low light I regularly use two flash heads for my bird pictures
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I've often done the same and set one flashgun to a slightly higher power output to 'model' the light. Of course it can be tricky to balance with the ambient light so as not to underexpose the background.
I'm going to start photographing birds flying with 4 flasguns set to manual and my big lens stopped down to F16 or so. I will use two flashguns to light the subject and the other two for lighting an out of focus painted board background.
Below are a few of my examples of different flash techniques.
Straight forward diffused fill flash on manual
High speed flash using the flash as the main subject light as the Redstart was in shade but the background was in sunlight. 1/500th second exposure.
At a focal length of 1000mm the flash extender was used to boost the range of the manual flash as the 'main' light with this backlit shot. The Herons eye appeared like a pearl and had to be fixed in Photoshop (2mins).
Using the X-tender to boost TTL fill flash range.
TTL fill flash with x-tender
Slow shutter speed TTL flash to create a blurred movement shot 1/10th sec.
Another slow shutter speed but faster at 1/20th sec TTL fill flash.
This Grey Seal cow was not bothered by the TTL preflash.
This bull Grey Seal did flinch with the flash so I switched to manual but at a 1/15th sec I could not get the shots sharp. I switched to 'rear-curtain' (fires flash at the end of the exposure rather than the start). This worked a treat and I was able to get a few sharp shots.