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.