Flying Birds

Tags

BIF, great egret, hummingbird, photography, postaday, saegull

Most of us are fascinated by photos of birds in flight (BIF), probably one of the hardest kinds of photography. Ever since I started to become serious in photography five years ago, I have occasionally attempted to shoot BIF pictures, most of the time with disappointing results. I still have a long way to go, but over the past few months I have kept the following photos to post.

Great Egret.

Great Egret.

Seagull.

Seagull.

The birds shown above are relatively large and easy to photograph. The hardest one, for me anyway, is the tiny but very fast Hummingbird.

Hummingbird.

Flying Seed

Tags

BIF, cardinal, downy woodpecker, nuthatch, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

A Nuthatch and Cardinal were perched on our bird feeder.

Cardinal and Nuthatch

The Nuthatch made many trips, each time flying away with a sunflower seed.

Cardinal watching Nuthatch flying away with sunflower seed

Next a Downy Woodpecker did the same thing, under the benign eyes of His Eminence.

Male Downy Woodpecker ferrying sunflower seed to be hidden on some tree trunk

A Red-Bellied Woodpecker displaced the Cardinal, but that did not seem to bother the Air Woodpecker pilot.

Air Woodpecker

BIF (Birds in Flight) Attempts

Tags

BIF, chickadee, house finch, junco, photography, postaday, tufted titmouse

For a photographer, taking pictures of birds in flight (BIF) is probably the ultimate challenge. Birds fly very fast, they won’t wait for you, and you have little control on such matters as lighting and angles. You must shoot at very high speed, bump up the ISO, and just hope that your camera can meet those critical demands.

I have started to do BIF with the small birds around our bird feeder, as you can see in the following photos.

House Finch flying away as a Cardinal looks on

Tufted Titmouse arriving as a Chickadee is leaving

Two Juncos, one landing, the other taking off