WW - some answers....
0. There is no beep in AI Servo mode because the camera is focusing continuosly and may lose focus and then regain it. One beep at the start would be of limited use and you could hardly have the thing beeping non stop while it was focusing. You only get the beep in One Shot mode (perhaps in AI Focus too but I never use that). It's the same thing with the confirmation light.
1. Picture style is a personal choice. If you shoot raw your choice makes no odds because your raw processor will ignore the picture style completely or, if you use DPP to process it will apply the selected picture style but you can freely change the style in use. If you shoot to JPEG then you do need to have your picture style decided before you shoot. If you shoot only to raw I would recommend choosing the Neutral picture style, in order to get a slightly more accurate histogram reflecting your raw capture. If you shoot to JPEG or raw + JPEG I recommend you choose the Standard picture style. There are no hard and fast rules here. Choose whatever pleases your eye. I would recommend you shoot raw, (a) because you just should
; (b) because if you use DPP you can play around with the settings after you take the shot and then figure out what you like best.
2. For BIF, always AI Servo. For static subjects AI Servo (but with focus only enabled on the AF-On button, not the shutter) or One Shot. Never Never Never use AI Focus. I don't know why these cameras have it. Pretend it does not exist.
3. There are people more expert than me in these things but I would suggest choosing a single point only, possibly/probably with the assist points enabled but rarely all points on anything less than a 1 series. The truth is that the answer really depends on the size, speed and predictability of the path of your subject and how skilled you are in following its movements. The better you are, or the easier it is to track (big, slow, steady) then the fewer points you should use. Using all points will only work well if the subject is large enough to cover multiple points at once. If it is not that large you will be wasting your time using all points.
4. Mostly I use manual exposure and spot metering. I try to avoid using autoexposure if I can. If you want to use autoexposure then the choice of metering mode really should be dictated by how the subject fits in with your scene and how much effort you want to put into twiddling the EC control. There are many ways to tackle the problem of exposure. The right way is whatever suits you and the subject/scene and lighting conditions you are facing.
5. If you're not going to use manual exposure then both Av and Tv modes have their uses. If controlling movement is of paramount importance then picking your preferred shutter speed might be the better choice. That would likely be the case when shooting BIF. When shooting perched birds then shutter speed won't be so much of an issue other than to avoid camera shake. You might choose to select your aperture in order to creatively isolate your subject from the surroundings or deliberately include them. You might also want to ensure that you didn't inadvertently tread into diffraction territory by ending up with an unusually small aperture, as might happen if you were to chose a modest shutter speed with a high ISO. The bottom line is you need to consider both aperture and shutter speed and you need to ride your ISO control to place both within boundaries that satisfy all needs.
At the end of the day I find manual exposure gives me the control I want on all fronts. If the lighting is constant I also find manual exposure about a million times easier to use than the auto modes. Put simply, if the lighting is constant, one you've metered and adjusted once that's the end of that chore. Shoot away happily while concentrating on framing, focusing and timing. Exposure will be one less thing to worry about.
Take today as a typical example. I was out with my camera. Conditions were bright/sunny with a little haze but no clouds. The light was barely changing at all, maybe dropping 1/3 stop every 30 minutes as the sun went down. I was walking along a dusty path, fairly pale and maybe about 1 1/3 stop above middle grey in brightness. To my left was a dark hedgerow, maybe a stop or more below middle grey. To my right was a grassy field, perhaps bang on middle grey in tone. Above me was the hazy blue sky, about 1 stop above middle grey. My camera was set with manual exposure off the palm of my hand at +1 1/3 stops. I was ready to shoot anything that appeared anywhere within a 180 degree field of view before me, both left/right and up/down. My exposure was set. Whether a crow flew by or an egret my exposure would be correct. No need to worry about the tone of my subject. No need to worry about the tone of the background, or if it was a mixture of tones. No fiddling around with EC or worrying about metering mode. Just see it, aim, focus, fire. That's why I like manual exposure.
Cheers,
Tim.