Being home from work today, I again started taking shots of the local birds, the ones who greet my wife in the morning or me later..wanting more seed and food during the winder cold.

These are little birds and time to take an "in flight" shot is almost nonexistant, not withstanding the low light on that side of our little place in the woods.

Bird shooters, animal photographers...give me and the others here your very best advice on doing these photos.  Please.   

The main problems are low light, backllight,  getting a good and quick focus(generally have to go manual)...all add up to little time and sometimes "so so" exposure.    I shoot with spot metering most of the time and for me that is quicker and more accurate than "averaged" or "matrix" metering when there is backlight.

Think about your bird or wildlife shots and see if you can come up with  primary reasons some have been bad or some have been just fine, whatever the issues might be.   

This will be appreciated.        TomDart.

Tom!!!! I'm SO glad you've asked this question!!!!!  I have the exact same problems trying to catch the little Chickadees, Titmice and Goldfinches around here. Also the trees are so thick that its hard to achieve focus as I chase them across the yard, LOL.

I plan to do some articles for the frontpage so if there is enough interest I  can make this one of the first... This is always a challenge in the winter the light is less good, and in the summer there is more of a canopy around the woods which will kill the light... Faster optics, and higher ISO are the order of the day in poor light, and greater workflow problems are enevitable.

AI SERVO - all the way baby! ;) But yeah a fast lens is the key i think... more light = quicker autofocusing from the camera as far as i am aware :) Manual is to hit and miss for me i think esp with low f numbers/dof. That is from my very limited experience of taking shots of birds in flight... as for low light photography... i have no clue - maybe get some 1million candle flashlight ;)

Looking forward to the articles Danny :)

Rich, I generally use continuous focus for attempts at "in flight" shots.  As for manual focus, when a bird is among lots of contrasty branches, etc., manual is more accurate for me and often quicker considering dof.  Accurate focus depends on me having the viewfinder diopter adjusted for my eyes and being sure my eye is the same place on the viewer for every shot..with trifocal specs that is a must, in my case.

Danny, I do hopt you will come up with an article.  You are well qualified to do that.       Tom.

Bring on the article Danny! :)

I spot metered on the bird.   Would you have done it differently?

The histogram is below.            Tom.

imho the way to do it in this instance Tom.

Happily the bird has a black feathers for an outline against the white background, and white feathers for an outline against the dark tree. Perfect, must have taken ages to get the bird in just the right spot for that ;)    

I would move the left slider inwards to get your black black and thats it for levels adjustments. 

You asked if I would have done it differently and the answer is yes:

I would have set the exposure beforehand using a grey card or some grass etc.  and then used manual settings. 
The reason I would have done that is I wouldn't try getting a spot metering on a bird that small. I would want the shutter speed decided for the lens I was using, and the aperture for dof I wanted. By deciding beforehand and getting set up I would have time to choose the settings more carefully.  It also allows freedom of composition because the bird doesn't have to be where the spot is (I know you can move the camera and lock the exposure - but time again when bird might fly away) .  By having exposure set I would be ready for any bird, all black, all white or coloured, not just one that averages out to grey.  

But then again there's people more expert than me here so lets see what they say.

Good idea...I may try that later today and see how it goes.  My vantage point is much like the shot, birds in lower light against a bright background.

My Nikon gives a pretty small spot compared to many DSLRs, still, the bird is tiny and very active.          Tom.

I would have also taken the same steps as Richard outlined... And  also with the Histogram adjustments.. It is good if you are expecting the bird to land on the tree but I find my canon tends to need some exposure compensation in the first place, so it is good practice to check on what camera you use to see if dialing in around an fstop will help you... Having a longer focal length will allow you to get in closer to the bird and get around the open backlit sky to make a better exposure..

oh - i was under the impression you were asking about inflight shots... but yes hunting autofocus on branches is annoying... that is where intimate knowledge of your lens is needed to know how to switch off AF quickly and without taking your eye from the viewfinder  ;)