Bird in flight, Zhuwei, Taiwan

One of the toughest challenges a nature photographer faces is capturing birds in flight. The keys to success in this are speed and patience. Birds fly at a variety of different speeds but one thing they don’t usually do is hang around waiting for you. Even for the experienced bird photographer it sometimes comes down to luck. You can increase your chances though by following a few simple steps.

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Firstly, you need to use a high shutter speed. 1/500 second is probably the minimum you’d want to use in order to freeze the bird in flight. The shot above was actually shot at 1/3200. There was no real reason for such a high speed; it was only because I had the ISO set to 400 on a bright day (I’d been shooting in some shadows immediately before). Using M is best so that you can have a consistent exposure from shot to shot, otherwise Tv so you can set a suitably high shutter speed. For metering you’ll probably have the best results using your camera’s spot meter if it has one, and use AI Servo focusing mode. Alternatively, you could try to use a slow shutter speed and panning techniques. Great for suggesting motion but you’ll probably have a much lower success rate.

Equipment-wise, longer lens (300mm+) and teleconverters will get you closer to the bird, but you’ll need to use a tripod or monopod. If you’re going out specifically to shoot birds, then this is not a problem, but if you’re just out for a casual walk around then you may want to stick to 200mm to make it easy to handhold, and hope the birds are close enough. The photo above is at 200mm but then I’m fortunate enough to live opposite a wetland, so there’s an abundance of birdlife a short walk from my front door.

Patience was something I mentioned and this is essential. The truth is, you’ll miss a lot more shots than you get. A lot more. It’s not unusual to come back from a long shoot with only a small handful of decent in-flight bird shots. So patience is essential, especially when your five hour shoot yields only 5 keepers. Persist with though and you’ll up that rate – not giving up is important.

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