Some flight shot attempts from my recent trip to Kenya! Bird in flight photos are a real challenge. I'm happy with the Great White Pelican shot and how it shows the bird in context with the environment and some other water birds. The Augur Buzzard shot was a fun surprise. I took a bunch of shots when he was quickly came into frame and started landing. I wasn't sure if I'd got the shot so seeing this dramatic shot with outstretched wings later was a nice surprise. I've also gotten some goofy shots of birds with their wings tucked in like the Pin-tailed Whydah. It just doesn't look quite right without the wings.

it was amazing to get a photo of this neotropic cormorant here at a local pond in Cartersville Georgia. it was an okay picture for a young starter for me at the age of eleven

Snowy Egret with fish, Moss Landing CA, Nikon Z9, 500f4 + 1.7 TC.  Dusk almost over.  I’ve definetely picked up some good tips in this class, Thanks Melissa!

BIFs (Birds in Flight) are so tough.  I can't wait to take some time and really practice the guidance that Melissa provides.  In the meantime, though, I just practice where and when I can, not as strategically as Melissa recommends.  That sometimes means that instead of birds in flight, I have to be satisfied with birds, particularly ducks, flapping their wings after bathing!  I took a few such photos this weekend that are not perfect but capture something amazing about these amazing flying creatures.

This was very useful information. I was particularly surprised that the first tip had nothing to do with gear, but instead had to do with wind conditions. I went out and practiced a bit, and came away with a few frames of some gulls. I wish the backgrounds were more interesting than plain blue sky, but I'll keep practicing to build the muscle memory and hand-eye coordination, and to learn to work with the capabilities of my gear.

I have a special love of BIFs (Birds in flight) shots and Australian Raptors.

I have found that pre-focusing just in front of the bird's expected path can help the camera's AF system lock onto it faster.  I have also, through my trial and error, found that shooting BIFs at faster shutter speeds, even with slower moving and gliding large raptors is beneficial.  So, these days, I shoot most of my Raptor BIF shots at 1/4000, f8 (for some added depth of field) and float the ISO to get the exposure correct.

The downside is that my older 500mm f4 prime (mark 1, circa 2001) is lacking in the AF department for fast moving birds, even with the superb AF of the R3.  I can partially mitigate it by shooting at faster shutter speeds and stopping down, but it is only a partial mitigation.  My dream lens is either the Canon EF 600mm f4 (mark 2) or a new Canon RF 600mm f4, but both of those are well outside of my current price range at this point of time.

Good hand holding technique is essential, as is the ability to pick up the lens and get the bird in the viewfinder's field of view on first go.  The latter takes a LOT of practice imho.

Practicing on very fast birds can help hone established skills and make them even better.  For those starting out with BIFs, I'd recommend attempting to shoot gulls and terns, which like to float in the air.  Get confident with them, and then move onto other birds.  Larger, slower raptors are good targets too as they quite often like to glide on thermals.  I've started shooting my local Peregrine Falcons, and you don't realise how fast they are until you see them in action.  Even on level flight, they can hit speeds of 120kph (~75mph).  I managed this shot (it is a crop) recently.  Not 100% tack sharp, but not too bad given the old lens that I am using.  And remember, this is taken with a 24mp R3, so those "lower" megapixels do hurt when you start to crop into the frame.  If you can get the bird large in the frame, then 24mp is perfectly fine imho.  A 45mp R5 would have offered more better resolution.  I am yet to try and capture images of these majestic birds with my R10 + RF200-800 combination, but it should result in better images.

The 2nd shot is a Black Shouldered Kite (slight crop from the full frame).  It was very close and moving reasonably fast, making it hard to capture in the frame.

The Black-necked Stilt on the left is defending his territory from the one on the right. I need more practice getting clear photos of birds in the air.

The initial challenge for me was keeping the bird in the frame.  I have plenty of empty sky photos to prove it.  I practiced first using my lighter bridge camera on faster birds (swallows and purple martins), until I was finding I could capture an occasional sharp photo (first photo of purple martin).  Then I had to start over with my heavier camera and zoom telephoto lens.  My arms ached from the practice, but by practicing trying to keep the faster, smaller birds in site, it made it easier to photograph the slower and soaring birds (second photo of egret).  My new practice challenges will be to practice panning at slower shutter speeds and adjusting exposures for light vs. dark birds against a bright sky.  I find it challenging to get good feather detail on the darker birds (eagles, cormorants).

Not yet tack sharp; but a dramatic improvement over attempts prior to this course. I have a Nikon D7200 that can store two user settings. For U1 which I use for general images; I set the camera to a single focus point, low shutter speed and f/8. The U2 setting is for capturing flying birds, I use 21 dynamic focus points, a shutter speed of 1/2000 and f/6.3. I let the camera decide the ISO setting.

got the composition right but still need some work in getting a sharper image

Last Christmas my wife gifted me a 60-600 zoom lens and just few days later my company sent me to work some weeks in Uganda, staying in a place only few minutes walking from Victoria lake, a wonderful area for birds photography. My new lens and temporary location make a very lucky combination to get started in birds photography.
Two weeks ago, I took Melissa’s course “Capture Birds in Flight” and am now finishing the “Bird Photography” course.
Progress is exciting. .

Here are few examples:

Thanks Melissa

I went to a nearby state park that has a good-sized lake--great place to practice!  Lots of birds, and the ducks and gulls are somewhat used to people being around, which sure helps.  This particular gull kept bathing, then hopping up from the water and diving back down.  Over and over again.  It was spectacular.  It paid to sit and watch and truly observe, or I might not have noticed him.  Because he kept repeating the behavior, I had a lot of opportunity to capture him.  He seemed to be really enjoying the day!  I took this with a Fuji X-T50, 70-300mm lens with a 1.4X teleconverter.  And wow, did the good light make all the difference.  I went out there the day before, light was not great, I got lousy shots.  This day, Christmas Eve, it was cold but the sun was out and made a huge difference in my speeds/ISO.  Exposures much, much better!  Thank you so much for this course, I learned a lot and have already made major improvements in my bird photography.

I went to the local park to try to capture birds in flight. I used camera settings that I've not used before including continuous low and high speed exposures. While there were many unsuccessful photos there were a couple of attempts which successfully put to use the techniques in these lessons.

The first photo is a pair of Noisy Miners.



While the pair of birds provide an interesting comparison with their wings in the desirable up and down positions, the background is overly distracting.

 

The second bird was a Little Pied Cormorant that had been perching for some time on the dead tree. Eventually it took off and provided a couple of interesting shots. Unfortunately again the background is overly distracting.

After this last lesson, I went looking for a bird in flight opportunity and immediately found one. This is the first time this summer that I've seen an Osprey in this location. I have a Nikon Z8 with a Sigma 150-600mm zoom lens. For settings I used continuous AF mode with a medium sized spot focus. I manually set the shutter speed to 1/2000s and the f-stop to f/13. The ISO was set to auto and selected 2000 at the time of the exposure. I wasn't able to position myself with the sun directly behind me, but the wind was coming for the direction of the sun and I was lucky to have the Osprey fly in that direction. I am amazed how much easier it is to focus on birds in flight once I started using continuous AF and a little bit wider spot focus area.

Got lucky with this photo - Anna's hummingbird.  I waited perhaps thirty minutes at about five meters from the feeder so the birds would get comfortable with me being present.  Nikon Z6II, Nikkor 600 mm f/6.3, photo taken at f/7.1, ISO 320, 1/2000 s.  I took hundreds of photos of hummingbirds during that session and only a couple turned out to be of sufficient quality.

Great blue heron.  The wind and sun were at my back and so the bird was facing away from me but I was able to obtain a photo that captured the dynamics of the flight feathers as the bird is landing.  Nikon Z6II, Nikkor 600 mm f/6.3, photo taken at f/11, ISO 800, 1/2500.

Captured these Red winged black birds.  Still working on getting sharper pictures.