venkatesh_eng, Thank you for providing the examples as they let us see the AF and the camera settings. I don't see anything obvious. The image I looked at has a AF zone on the duck. If this 1 frame isn't perfect, and if you 'ripped' 14-40 frames over the next few seconds at 14fps, did the focus improve in subsequent frames? If this bird just took off, did you start the AF from the water through this frame and continuing? With several to chose from, then you can review and pick the best (best pose, best wing position, best sharpness, best exposure, etc).

A few settings to consider:

1) Try Aperture or Shutter priorities rather than Program.

2) Try AUTO ISO with EC to 'position' for 'bright', say at +1 over (to the right) of the 0-mark on the meter.

3) Try Case 3 for the Servo AF.

4) Look at the resulting customizations for Case 3, see of you should / need to add +1 to the Tracking and Acceleration settings if Case 3 doesn't enable these settings automatically.

5) For the LiveView setting, are you shooting with the camera held to your eye or held way and viewing the back?

So, these are good subjects and again thank you for posting so we have a common basis for discussion. Practice and investigation, I think, are what are needed at this point as you have great subjects for practice.

Paul - thank you for your time and the detailed analysis of my pictures exif data. As you suggested,
1) I will try aperture or shutter priority next time instead of Program mode,
2) Auto ISO with EC +1
3) Case 3 for Servo AF
4) I will check on Case 3 and customize tracking/ acceleration setting for +1
5) Live view i have been shooting with camera held to the eye

I have been trying out the camera only on the weekends. With this pandemic working from home it has been crazy long hours on weekdays.

I will post more pictures over the weekend. I am sure this mirrorless technology is just fine and only time and practice are needed to get used to it. Will keep posting. Thanks again.

Just another observation, on canon animal eye tracking. It's a great feature and generally works well but when you have a cluttered background, lack of contrast and many animals, i,e, flocks of birds then animal eye tracking has a harder time and will bounce between subjects. The being said it works really well when there is just a single subject on a clear background...say a Canadian Goose against a clear blue sky. Alas our cameras haven't yet reached the A.I level of the HAL 9000. Which may be a good thing..."I can't do that Dave...."

Just another observation, on canon animal eye tracking. It's a great feature and generally works well but when you have a cluttered background, lack of contrast and many animals, i,e, flocks of birds then animal eye tracking has a harder time and will bounce between subjects. The being said it works really well when there is just a single subject on a clear background...say a Canadian Goose against a clear blue sky. Alas our cameras haven't yet reached the A.I level of the HAL 9000. Which may be a good thing..."I can't do that Dave...."

venkatesh_eng, Thank you for providing the examples as they let us see the AF and the camera settings. I don't see anything obvious. The image I looked at has a AF zone on the duck. If this 1 frame isn't perfect, and if you 'ripped' 14-40 frames over the next few seconds at 14fps, did the focus improve in subsequent frames? If this bird just took off, did you start the AF from the water through this frame and continuing? With several to chose from, then you can review and pick the best (best pose, best wing position, best sharpness, best exposure, etc).

A few settings to consider:

1) Try Aperture or Shutter priorities rather than Program.

2) Try AUTO ISO with EC to 'position' for 'bright', say at +1 over (to the right) of the 0-mark on the meter.

3) Try Case 3 for the Servo AF.

4) Look at the resulting customizations for Case 3, see of you should / need to add +1 to the Tracking and Acceleration settings if Case 3 doesn't enable these settings automatically.

5) For the LiveView setting, are you shooting with the camera held to your eye or held way and viewing the back?

So, these are good subjects and again thank you for posting so we have a common basis for discussion. Practice and investigation, I think, are what are needed at this point as you have great subjects for practice.