Just thought of another tip - If you want to photograph garden birds like image 2 - stick a spade or fork into the ground next to the bird table, preferably one that has a nice looking wooden handle. The birds will get used to using it as a perch. You can then set your camera to shoot and wait for one to arrive, you control the background by placement of the spade :)

And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Edward Lear
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/jumblies.html