Photographing birds

[zarozinia]

This year I want to challenge myself to photograph subjects that I have not done justice in the last year, in an effort to improve. One of the subjects I want to learn to photograph better is birds, just garden birds will do as I have a garden with lots of trees and bushes down two sides.
I want to hear the tricks of the trade, how you set out to capture birds in your garden.
I am going to set up some natural looking perches and get some bird seeds and nuts for them. I have read that smearing peanut butter on a branch can often attract them too.

One of the problems I have found is that many of them are just too far away for me to get a decent pic, or that they are in tree branches with bright sky beyond them - so I end up with more of a dark silhouette against burnt out skies

Any tips and suggestions but be appreciated, thanks in advance.

oh yeah, my lenses are a canon 18-55mm and achoice of both sigma and canon 70-300mm

 

[All bar one]

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......... I think I took these with my 70-300 recently - and have also just taken an interest in the birds from our garden.

A few things I found.

1. The right food for your part of the world and the birds that will be around your neighbourhood is important, BUT, without fail, sunflower seeds have been the biggest winner for us (from a feeder at least 4ft from the ground) Hang it from a tree or buy a stand to hang it from - also, a bird table with grated cheese and breadcrumbs is good - and another sure fire winner is raisins sprinkled in the garden. As with all foods, dont put out more than the birds can eat in a day, so with your feeder just fill with hand full of seeds until more birds come.

2. At 300mm a tripod is important. I have sat with the patio doors open and set up the tripod so I can sit behind it comfortably and wait for the moment.
Also, I have recently started leaving an old tripod in the garden so the birds get used to it being there (they are always wary if things appear changed too much), then having just bought a infa red remote, I prefocus on a feeder and pop the camera on my decent tripod and use the remote from in the house to capture them.

3. Shutter speed vs available light vs ISO. My garden faces north so unless its really bright I have to make sacrifices.

4. Hides are available, but I reckon the Mrs would flip if I got one

5. I got some good tips from this following link HERE and i'm sure if you peep at his pics or get in touch it will help.

Hope that helps. With luck others will chip in with bits i've missed.
Ttfn

 

[All bar one]

Just thought of something else having read your thread again.

Dont worry about burnt out shots - just pick a good time of day when the light is ok, cos the birds feed on a kind of rota system from morning to night and will visit throughout the day, and position the feeders in spots that will assist in eliminating these probs - you'll note mine are against a backdrop of a hedge.

 

[Kerioak]

Spend time in the bird section of TP - I think my bird photography has improved a lot since I started looking at other people's shots and taking note of the comments made

When feeding the birds watch out for salt, the small birds especially do not cope well with it so try and use bird, rather than human foods for them

 

[zarozinia]

Thank you both very much for the tips, I will buy some sunflower seeds today.