Most birds are very active with excellent vision. The slightest movement from a photographer typically sends birds fleeing to a safe perch. For this reason, most bird photographers use blinds in combination with long telephoto lenses. Birds come to feeders so strategic placement of these near windows can enhance your opportunities. Winter is an excellent time to photograph birds because they are more preoccupied with feeding. Hawks are also drawn in as these predators prey on winter stressed birds. I have watched Coopers, Sharp-shinned, and Red Shouldered hawks make kills within 10 feet of my windows.

With good technique very acceptable bird photographs can be taken through double pane glass windows with or without flash units. Positioning a telephoto lens at right angles to windows helps control reflections. Flash can provide a definite edge when light levels are low. The beauty of digital cameras is one can also adjust ISO to deal with changing light levels.

In the summer I sometimes use infra-red beams, an electronic shutter, and four flash units for hummingbird photography. Setups like this require attention to lots of details so they help fine-tune technique. I may offer a workshop on high speed photography in the near future.

Some digital video cameras possess very good telephoto ranges with acceptable still frame capability. A number of bird images on my site are digital video stills. Although adequate for web pages, video still frames are still not capable of producing larger prints.