Photographing Birds in Flight, a Bird Field Guide

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Your Bird Field Guide to Photographing Birds in Flight

Inside This Page

Digicam Help
Vivid Light by Moose Peterson
Digital Photography Fundamentals
Ken Rockwell
Everglades Photo Society
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Need More Help?

I was asked by one of my students if there is a kind of bird field guide to photographing birds in flight. So, I ran a Google search that produced a number of very interesting websites. In reviewing each of those sites, I have put together what I consider to be the top 6 websites.

Digicam Help

This 1st website I liked the best because it had what you could call a top 10 list of rules to successfully photographing birds in flight.

Use a fast shutter speed of at least 1/500th of a second.
Use manual mode or shutter priority but make sure the shutter speed is 1/500th of a second or faster.
Use an aperture between f4 and f8 to ensure good light and maintain the detail in the bird.
Bright clear blue skies provide the best light.
Turn on image focus tracking (if you have this feature). Focus on the bird’s eyes.
Follow the flight of the bird using your viewfinder and not the LCD screen.
Practice, practice, practice.
Turn on focus lock (usually done by pressing the shutter half way).
Once focus lock is activated, press the shutter.
Try using continuous exposure setting to take 3-5 frames per second.

Obviously there is a more detailed description behind each of these, so here is where you need to go... The Digicam Help page

Vivid Light by Moose Peterson

This next website has a great article by Moose Peterson that is explaining the features of your digital camera and why they are important to successfully photographing birds in flight.

AF Sensor – bird direction – which sensor to use and when.
Make sure the subject is not centered. This is a basic rule for photographing a number of subjects.
What is the preferred lens to use?
The importance of the angle of light from the sun.

Again, there is a lot more detailed information, so here is where you need to go... Vivid Light

Digital Photography Fundamentals

Roger F Cram's website has a detailed “book” on photographing birds in flight and perhaps it should have even been the 1st reference site on this page.

This “book” covers these fundamentals in simple easy to understand details for the less experienced photographer especially those who have bought their point and shoot cameras and have never used a 35mm film camera.

It is important they read and learn these fundamentals because they are definitely not explained very well (if at all) in the manuals that come with point and shoot cameras.

There are 10 “chapters” in this book but the top 5 sections are:

Equipment
Depth of Field
Film Speed
Shutter Speed
Flash

To read and learn more about... The Secrets of Bird Flight Photography

Ken Rockwell

Overall, Ken Rockwell has a very informative website on a number of topics not limited to photographing birds in flight. He has a page on “while balance” that will be particularly useful for the point and shoot users always leave their camera set to AUTO and then wonder why their images do not come out properly.

I am also certain you will refer to Ken’s How To section as there seems to be an endless list of useful articles for photographers.

To visit Ken's site... Click Here

Everglades Photo Society

Although this next website is primarily involves the Everglades in Florida, the methods explained and images of birds is applicable for shooting birds anywhere. I think you will find their Photo Pool contains some great images of birds you do not often get to see.

To learn more about the Everglades Photo Society... Click Here

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

This last website in my selection for photographing birds in flight is the Cornel Lab of Ornithology. It is an excellent website that not only gives you a number of great tips on how to. It also has useful information to help you learn about birds in general, a bird guide, a gear guide, how to attract birds, and the conservation of birds.

To visit the Cornell Lab... Click Here

Need More Help?

As I mentioned at the top of the page, my Google search results produced a number of possible webpage and of the 12 sites I reviewed, I felt these were the most useful. If you have any other suggested website that you feel would be informative and useful to photographing birds, please do not hesitate to Contact Us.

If you have additional information on photographing birds in flight, or if you have any comments and examples for your specific camera model that you would like to share with us, Become a Contributor.

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