![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/common-grackle-8403-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"common-grackle-8403-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nGrackles aren’t everyone’s favorite bird but I now have a soft spot for this one.<\/p>\n
Photographing songbirds (or any small bird) in what I call “full flight” has always been next to impossible for me. They’re just too small and their flight is too fast and erratic. Occasionally I get one sharp and in frame immediately after takeoff but after they’ve been in flight for any more than a second or so (what I call full flight) I might as well be trying to photograph a mosquito in flight in a hurricane.<\/p>\n
But with the Canon R-5 I now have a legitimate chance of success.<\/p>\n
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1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon R-5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Eight days ago at a local pond I was pleasantly surprised to get this male Common Grackle sharp for several shots in a burst. As he flew over the pond he’d already been in full flight for over 200′ so he was at speed and flying somewhat erratically. But I got him sharp anyway.<\/p>\n I was encouraged so the next day I tried it again with another male grackle doing the same thing and that time I got about 2 dozen consecutive sharp shots of the grackle. They were ugly photos because of power lines, buildings and roof tiles in the background but the grackle was sharp in every last one of them!<\/em> To say I was blown away is a little strong but only a little.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Much of the credit goes to the autofocus capabilities of the R-5 rather than to the photographer. When it works, Canon’s animal\/eye detection is very, very impressive. And since I’m shooting 45 MP images I have significantly more wiggle room to keep the bird in the frame and with those huge files I can crop more and still have good to very good image quality.<\/p>\n But there’s a caveat. The animal\/eye detection doesn’t always work so well, especially with a bird in flight in low light or with busy backgrounds. There are times when my active focus point has obviously grabbed the bird in flight and when I first review my images the bird looks sharp but when I look at them at 100% they aren’t sharp enough. Sometimes I actually wonder if I could have done better with my old camera. Probably not, but I still wonder.<\/p>\n But at least I now know that I have a reasonably good chance of success when I attempt to photograph a speedy and erratic songbird in full flight. So I’ll keep trying.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS – It snowed last night! There’s about 3″ of white stuff on my deck, we’re supposed to get more today and they’re forecasting 1-2′ of snow in the mountains. I hope most of it ends up in the Great Salt Lake.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grackles aren’t everyone’s favorite bird but I now have a soft spot for this one.\u00a0<\/p>\n