Birds in Flight

In my previous articles, I talked about the challenges of photographing fast moving birds. You need to get close, shoot fast and you need to be very familiar with your camera settings. In this article I’ll give some tips on how to practice and improve your photography skills in your own back garden. All you need is a feeder and lots of nuts!

The trick is to position your camera close to a bird feeder. I shoot through an open window with the feeder 3 metres away. Set up the feeder close to the house, leave it for a few days, keeping it topped up, and let the birds get familiar with the new location. I regularly get 10 different species visiting mine, often on the same day, so there is plenty of variety and colour to choose from.

Attach a freshly cut twig to a spare tripod and place it 2 metres from the feeder, at the same height. The birds will use this as a staging post before moving on to the feeder. Set up the camera on a tripod, slightly higher than the feeder, angled slightly downwards.

Perching Birds
To get a sharp picture of perching birds you will need a shutter speed of 1/300th to 1/500th of a second. For this type of shoot I usually use Aperture Priority with a low setting of f/5.6 – f/6.3 and adjust the ISO to give me the required shutter speed. The ISO setting is dependent on the available light, but on a sunny day it should be around 500 – 800. Use as low an ISO setting as you can, to achieve the required shutter speed. Take a few test shots of the twig and check the histogram to make sure the exposure settings are correct and adjust, using the exposure compensation dial, if required. Check that the lawn in the background is out of focus and blemish free. Remember to focus on the bird’s eyes and take plenty of shots.

Blue Tit
Canon 5D, Canon EF 100-400mm, Aperture Priority, No Flash
f/6.3, 1/320th sec, ISO 500 , Focal Length 400mm

Chaffinch
Canon 5D, Canon EF 100-400mm, Aperture Priority, No Flash
f/5.6, 1/500th sec, ISO 800 , Focal Length 400mm

Birds in Flight
After you have mastered the technique of taking pictures of perching birds you can attempt to capture them in flight. This is not as easy as it sounds. Their small size and fast flight makes focusing extremely difficult and bear in mind that the wings are beating at up to 20 times per second.

The plan is to capture the birds in flight, between the twig and the feeder. We have set up a predictable pathway, where we know they will fly to and from. They will stop off at the staging post then head to the feeder, when there is an available landing slot. The flight time will take about 1/5th of a second.

You will need a shutter speed of at least 1/4000th of a second to totally freeze the wing beats. The best way to achieve this is with high speed flash. I use a Canon 580EX Speedlite (off camera) and set it to the High Speed Sync function. Set the camera to Manual, shutter speed 1/4000th, aperture f/5.6, ISO 1000. Take a few test shots of the feeder and check the histogram to make sure the exposure settings are correct and adjust the flash output if required. Set the lens to manual focus - the birds will be flying faster than the camera autofocus (or you) can react. Set the focal point of the lens on the bird feeder and fire the shutter using a remote switch.

Now, we are all set! When you see a bird on the twig positioning itself to take off, hit the shutter button on the remote switch. Don’t even look through the viewfinder – keep your eye on the bird on the twig and shoot as soon as it makes a move. It all happens so fast that, in many of the images, the bird will be sitting on the bird feeder eating nuts. But, when you get into the rhythm of it, you will get some fantastic shots showing the intricate detail of those majestic wings.

The following sequence of pictures was taken when there was snow on the ground, hence the white/blue background of the lawn.

Goldfinch & Great Tit
Canon 5D, Sigma 170-500mm, Manual, Flash
f/5.6, 1/4000th sec, ISO 1000, Focal Length 307mm

Chaffinch & Goldfinches
Canon 5D, Sigma 170-500mm, Manual, Flash
f/5.6, 1/4000th sec, ISO 1000, Focal Length 307mm

Goldfinches Fighting
Canon 5D, Sigma 170-500mm, Manual, Flash
f/5.6, 1/4000th sec, ISO 1000, Focal Length 307mm