[Theme] Show Birds

[Nasos Kosmas]

Colin it’s Very nice!

[golunvolo]

Colin, wonderful portrait

[Bruno Schroder]

They started building a nest in our hedge, under a window. Some nests have more than 2000 feathers inside.

[ColinM]

Nasos, Paco, thanks for your kind comments

[ColinM]

They started building a nest in our hedge, under a window.

Its that time of the year isn't it! 
Can you remind us their name?

[Bruno Schroder]

Hi Colin,

it is the long-tailed tit or Aegithalos caudatus. First time they nest in the garden.     

[chris dees]

Lanius elegans koenigi or Canary Islands Desert Grey Shrike. Endemic on the Canary Islands
In Dutch "Canarische Woestijnklapekster", try that to pronounce. 
This picture is taken in the "El Teide National Park" on Tenerife.

NIKON D500 + 500PF, ISO 110, F5.6, 1/800

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful shots Colin, Chris and Bruno!

[ColinM]

Thanks Peter

[elsid]

Nycticorax nycticorax

[Øivind Tøien]

The Grey Crowned Crane - what a gracious beauty, Peter.

Colin, you certainly nailed the focus on the last Kestrel, you could probably pull out a self portrait if you lift the shades. I also thought I commented on the nice symmetry in #750 but my message might have disappeared before I got to post. Is the device attached to on of the legs a locator/GPS beacon?

Here is another example with the 300PF on D500, likely grey herons Ardea cinerea from a drive by shooting though the rainful window of a bus near Sortland in Northern Norway - only noticed and reacted in the glimpse of a second. I was surprised it went this well. Must have been really high quality window panes in that bus.



D500 with 300mm f/4 PF, @ f/4.5 1/1000 sec. ISO 1600.

[ColinM]

Colin, you certainly nailed the focus on the last Kestrel, you could probably pull out a self portrait if you lift the shades.

Thanks Øivind, I was fortunate in that the bird was calm and less than 4m away from me.

I also thought I commented on the nice symmetry in #750 but my message might have disappeared before I got to post. Is the device attached to on of the legs a locator/GPS beacon?

I often use an Android tablet to read Nikongear and can never find the message numbers on it
The hovering Kestrel?

Thanks, yes I couldn't believe both the sharpness and the symmetry when I pulled the images off the card. I'd had a torrid time that day, with very little success getting AF to lock onto BIF .

Luckily there was a headwind and the kestrel was hovering. Although they usually need to flutter their wings to do this, we must have got a few split seconds when he was literally gliding into the wind. I love the curve you can see he's got his wings into.

And yes, since this was at a centre that specialises in Birds of Prey, they all have trackers on them.
When they released the Peregrine Falcon, it flew completely out of sight. They used a device a little like a 1970's TV aerial to find which direction he'd gone in!

grey herons Ardea cinerea from a drive by shooting though the rainful window of a bus

You did well to spot these & compose in time from a moving vehicle (probably bumpy roads too).
The windows on these things are never clean enough when you need them to be are they ?!

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks for the comment and clarification Colin. I was lucky in this case that we were just heading out of Sortland which was the main departure point, so windows were immaculately clean, and mysteriously the windows on my side did not get too much rain drops on them opposed to the other side of the bus. The low contrast is because of the rain in the air between me and the subject. We were on asphalt roads, but variable quality with respect to bumps. I find that the VR on the 300mm PF works very well in situations like this, even in sports mode that is my standard setting for most situations.

I have tried shooting like this though car windows, but they have usually not had adequate optical quality, to not mess things up.

[ColinM]

Re: shooting through murky windows

I spent a week in Iceland, travelling around with a coach party.
Luckily they kept the windows spotless, which was good as the landscapes between stops were stunning.
I even managed some viable joiners

Here's a link as I'm well off topic now

https://pbase.com/celidh/image/163163439

[ColinM]

If this isn't the best place to raise this, let me know and I'll create a new topic.

There are many stunning shots in the preceding pages.
It would be great if you would share

• Camera & typical lens(s) used
• The key settings that help you get clear, well focussed, sharp pictures of birds
  (I'm particularly interested in Birds in Flight)
• If you use more than one combo, maybe the settings for the others too?

I use a 300mm PFwith a D500. I hoped my success rate would climb when I moved from my 300mm f4 AFS & D300, but still  get too many shots where the bird isn't in clear focus.
I'll review some examples and share the settings I've tried to.