via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

I use a tripod and ball head with a sidekick on the ball head; mine is Indoor but there are others out there. The sidekick, if you have a ball head, allows for stability while shooting and also allows for very quick response from the photographer. In some cases I would shoot hand held, but only for very small, fast birds where I had ample opportunity to shoot the subject; this requires a very fast shutter speed as does any shot of a bird the majority of the time.

Al K

I have hand held my bird camera shoots for hundreds of sessions with success. Hand held gives me more options. I shoot with a Sigma 150 to 600mm zoom. However, I am getting older and am finding it more difficult to shoot with the long lens with all the weight. I am now using a gimbal mount and tripod, which gives me much of the freedom of hand held but takes all the weight out of my hands. This allows me to freely follow the birds with no weight on me.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

As others have said, it could be camera shake or low shutter speed. Actually a 5% keep rate with birds isn't bad. I shoot handheld but "spray and pray". Getting a really good bird shot is tough. You can get excited and jerk the shutter. The bird can move it's head or body or fly away. You often have just a few seconds. I use continous shooting so I can fire off 5 or 6 shots rapid fire. If I'm lucky I might get a keeper. Usually not.