With all that obedience training you did you somehow missed teaching the dog the most important command a pointing dog should know, Whoa.

Teach your dog to stop and stand still on the whoa command. After a short time do this with distraction, and occassionally thrash the grass and brush in front of her as if you are trying to flush a bird.

After she whoa's reliably and is steady while you thrash around in front of her reintroduce her to birds in cover. At this stage she should whoa for 5-10 minutes if you want her to, and from distances too.

It sounds to me like she is blinking the birds.This ussually associated with the dog avoiding the bird because it associates the bird with excessive pressure. If she were flash pointing she would have flushed the bird right after the flash point.

Anyway, when she flash points the bird steady her with a whoa. Then flush the bird and praise the dog. Praise excessively so she understands, and gets excited about finding birds.

Also, try changing your training ground. Dogs remember places well. If you always train at the same place she will act the same way everytime. Train your dog for each command in at least 5 different locations. If you don't you might find the dog will forget everything you taught it in the park when you get her out in the woods.

Until she is hunting well quit using the heal command. This just teaches the dog that staying close in more important than hunting.

And go real slow and careful with the gun breaking. You should have started that on day one.

Well, good luck.