Trogon Photo Tours

In this month's article Chuck Gangas writes about photographing birds in flight.  The images are from his personal travels and from our workshops. The examples you’ll see below are all captured on Nikon DSLR bodies and Nikkor lenses.

One of the first issues most folks experience in attempting to capture images of birds in flight is finding the subject in the viewfinder.  Lens focal length and subject distance play a large part in what you’ll see when you place the viewfinder to your eye and attempt to find your subject. For instance, if you shoot with a 500mm lens and a full frame sensor body, and your subject is at 100 feet, your Angle of View (AOV) thru the viewfinder is approximately 4.12 degrees-which equates to about 7.2 feet. That is the view you’ll see thru the viewfinder edge to edge-a little over 7 feet. If you have a crop sensor your Field of View (FOV) is even less. In the example of distance and focal length above, shooting with a 1.5 crop sensor your FOV will be approximately 4.8 feet and a corresponding AOV of 2.7 degrees. So it’s no mystery that when folks first attempt BIF (birds in flight) photography they have trouble picking up their intended subject in the viewfinder.

One trick I learned early on as I attempted to capture BIF’s was to use my lens hood and hot shoe as a sighting aid.  I would rotate the lockdown screw of the lens hood to the 12 o’clock position on the lens, lift the rig to my face, and line up my subject with the “sighting” tool to pick up and track the bird. Once you have the subject sighted then move the viewfinder up to your eye and keep tracking. It will take some time to get used to picking up your subject, but with time you’ll be able to locate and track flying birds. Other things to consider are shutter speed and aperture. As a rule, the faster your shutter speed the greater your chances of placing sharp images on your card. You’ll also want to consider aperture-especially if you are attempting to capture a flying flock and want most or all the birds in focus. I should also add my preferred method for focus is employing Back-button Auto Focus (BBAF).



This image was captured as I was walking along a beach in Maine. I noticed a bit of a commotion behind me as several gulls were screaming up a storm when one of them broke away with this clam in its mouth. I immediately began tracking the bird and began to fire the shutter when the bird was at about a 45-degree angle from me and continued to track the bird until it was just in front of me.   I made this image with a D810 and 500mm F4 at 1/2000s @ f/7.1 ISO 640, 1/3 EV handheld, focus tracking in Manual mode with Dynamic (D21) selected, and the back button programed to activate the focus.  Gulls are fairly slow moving birds and are common in many areas so they make excellent subjects for photographers to work on their BIF skills and subject acquisition.  Ducks fly faster but there are often a nice mix of ducks and gulls at city parks.   I might also add that as a matter of technique I employ a series of burst shots-somewhere between 5-8, usually. The reason for the burst mode is I find that a few of the images captured in the burst will be somewhat sharper, and if I lose focus momentarily- taking your thumb off the back button and reactivating the focus will in most instances put you back in focus.

Another fairly slow moving and easily tracked bird was this gliding Black-winged Stilt captured on the salt pans in Thailand. I first noticed this bird in a flock at the far corner of the pan and watched as it began to fly towards me. In manual mode and handheld, I began to track the bird as it got to within 20-25 meters and then locked on focus-shooting in burst mode until the bird was almost directly in front of me. Using a D500 and 500mm F4 my setting was 1/2000s @ f/5.6 ISO 320, Group AF, handheld. 

I was in Ontario Canada a few years back to shoot the spring migration when on the recommendation of a local photographer I decided to visit Hillman Marsh to photograph shorebirds. Here a Caspian Tern had caught a fish and was bringing it back to his potential mate. Picking up the bird early and tracking its flight I fired off a series of shots and got this result. This image was shot at 1/1250s @ f/9.0 ISO 400, +1/3 EV handheld in Manual mode, Dynamic 25 selected as the focus points with the D500 and 500mm F4. I used Dynamic mode here because I wanted to ensure continuous focus as the bird got closer to the exposed grasses. If I shot in Group AF mode, I could potentially lose focus lock as that mode prioritizes the closest subject in the frame.

There are often occasions where you might want to imply motion in a moving subject. On an overcast and dreary day on the Chobe River in Botswana we came across this Giant Kingfisher. It jumped off its perch and flew towards me, and having taken some static images seconds earlier, I wasn’t quite prepared for this sudden departure.  So I took the shot with the setting I had dialed in and hoped for the best. In this case I got lucky, and my focus stayed on the bird’s head as I came away with this shot. If you want to imply motion in your flight shots you’ll want to reduce your shutter speed and accurately pan your subject. D810/500mm F4, 1/320s @ f/5.0  ISO 1600 0 EV-handheld from a boat.  In this case it was such a dark and overcast day that to freeze the wings would have required a very high iso which would have resulted in poor image quality.  Dark days are good days to work on slow shutter speed flight shots which imply motion. 

There are occasions when you want to get all the action in focus. Walking the beach outside of Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador there was a large flock of Blue-footed Bobbies taking numerous plunge dives in a feeding frenzy. I watched as the flock would fly up and down the shoreline spotting their prey, so I timed my panning to track the birds in a group dive.  Here I stopped my Aperture down to f/9 to capture the action with a deeper Depth of Field. D500, 500mm F4, 1/1250s @ f/9, ISO 1400, +1 2/3 EV, Manual mode, Auto ISO, Group AF, handheld. 



In many instances of Birds in Flight photography one comes across very fast flying subjects, and often they are quicky changing course, making for some very challenging shooting. Here I was visiting Northwest Costa Rica and the Rio Frio in Cano Negro. Looking for the Yellow-breasted Crake and initially coming up short, I noticed several Mangrove Swallows darting about our boat. I followed these guys for at least a half-hour, trying with limited success to capture a flight image. These birds are not only fast, they’re also erratic. With a fast shutter speed and a determination to capture a shot, I worked it hard to come up with this image. D500, 500mm F4, 1/2500s @ f/7.1, ISO 1400, +1/3 EV Manual mode, Auto ISO, Group AF, handheld from a boat.



Perhaps the most difficult shots to make with BIF photography are getting images of birds flying directly towards you. Many camera auto focus systems have difficulty locking onto birds flying towards the lens and this often leads to some frustration. One of the cool features in many advanced DSLR and Mirrorless cameras is the ability to program various buttons on the camera. In all my camera bodies I have the Pv and F1 buttons programed for different focus modes. I have the Pv button programed to Group Auto Focus Mode, the F1 button programmed to Single Point Focus, and the camera’s default setting to Dynamic 25. That offers me the flexibility to change focus modes on the fly-so to speak-in order to accommodate various situations.

In the Guanacaste of Costa Rica two years ago I was out walking the beach early one morning. The tide was receding and exposing the lava rock on the shoreline and I noticed this Great-tailed Grackle in a small tidal pool. As the bird was fairly stationary, I acquired focus initially with Single Point AF using the F1 button activated by my third finger, but as the bird jumped up and began to fly towards me, I quickly pressed the Pv button with my second (social) finger switching the focus mode from Single Point to Group AF-without taking the camera from my eye. Since I had initially acquired focus with Single Point, quickly switching the focus mode to Group allowed me to maintain focus on the bird as it flew towards the lens. To work with the front button settings more effectively, you’ll want to use Back-Button Auto Focus (BBAF) while you switch modes. If you keep the BBAF continuously engaged, you will transition from one focus mode to another, seamlessly. It will take some time to get used to working in this fashion, particularly using your camera settings as I’ve just described.  But once you re-train your muscle memory to move between pre-programed buttons and select the appropriate focus mode, your chances of taking keeper images of birds in flight will improve considerably. 

This image was one of my favorites from that trip and earned a Top 250 placement in NANPA’s 2020 Showcase Awards in the Conservation Category.  D500, 500mmF4, 1/3200s @ f/6.3, ISO 900, Manual Mode, Auto ISO, Group AF, Handheld.



This Short-eared Owl was captured this past February at the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area in Vermont. These guys were seen in fair numbers this winter and I made a few trips over to capture some flight shots.  This area is close to Lake Champlain and has numerous shallow ravines these birds like to hunt in.  I was tracking this owl as it was flying horizontally across my viewfinder and then it suddenly changed course and flew directly towards me.  Keeping a solid focus lock with the bird I managed to fire off several shots.  D500, 500mm F4/ 1/2000s @ f/6.3, ISO 320, 2/3 EV, Manual mode Auto ISO, Group AF, handheld.

I usually shoot handheld when I go looking for BIF opportunities as I find it offers me more freedom to roam about in hopes of finding subjects to shoot. That said, I’ll also use a Monopod, and at times a tripod, if I feel that would be a better option. If you have trouble handholding your rig, using a monopod or tripod will offer a more stable platform and reduce fatigue. Both can be used very affectively shooting BIF’s, but they are less mobile than shooting handheld.

If anyone has any questions for Chuck regarding this article, birds in flight photography or any Nikon questions feel free to email him at charlesgangas@gmail.com.  In terms of our workshops probably the best ones to learn and practice flight photography are our May and June eagle photography workshops in Washington state.