O.k.. Everyone here has given you excellent advice. Now to put it to practical use. First thing; I have an almost identical setup with my bird feeder. It is about 4 ft. away from my dining room window and I set about 4-5 ft. inside of that at a table - no tripod. Unless you have really shaky hands, you don't need one. A tripod would be a smart thing to use regardless. I have yet to be accused of being smart. 2nd: you have an excellent camera and an excellent lens. Make sure that the I.S. is turned on as mentioned before. For my exposure, I use the spot metering most of the time. Try that. For focusing, I always use single point. Try that.

Now then, there are a few schools of thought on this. You should either use M mode or AV mode. Stay away from any type of shutter priority for now (TV). Let's go with M (manual) mode for now.

As you can see, I am trying to guide you to a practical start point. Let us now start with the really cool settings. In M mode. Set your ISO to 400 to start with. In your example, I would try to focus towards the back of his neck only because even with a single point focus, it will still read the feeder. The reason I chose ISO 400 for you is two fold: 1: you can use much faster shutter speeds and it allows for overcast light. 2: it helps with camera shake because you can use faster shutter speeds. That simple.

Set the aperture around F5.6 just for a start point. You can always change this later.

Now you are almost set. Look through your viewfinder. dial in the shutter speed to get those small bars as close to 0 as possible (I think that is how your camera works). You should have a good exposure at this point. Snap the picture. If by chance your shutter speed is around 1/100 sec. or so, you can lower the ISO to 200 for less noise and a sharper image. Remember what others have pointed out; your shutter speed should be somewhere around 300 or more with that particular lens when hand holding. If it is around 500 or slightly more, that is not a bad thing either. At this point, you can fool around and change the aperture to F6.3 - F7.1 or higher for a great depth of field. Just try not to have the shutter speed below 300 when doing this. If it does this at F7.1 for example, just bump the ISO back up to 400. Easy, right?

A good way to practice this if there are no birds around, simply stick a golf ball or something with texture about where you think the bird will be. I hope this was of some help.

If you wish to use AV mode instead, simply set your desired Aperture and ISO, and the camera will automatically select the shutter speed for you. Even easier yet, Huh? I hope this helps.

Hi,
Do I read your response correctly? - you have a 70 - 300 L lens mounted on the camera? I agree with most of the others who suggested you were not focused on the bird with a single focus point. You may also want to make sure the IS (image stabilization) is switched to on. That's a pretty heavy lens - a monopod or tripod my help - not necessary, but hand holding may be a bit challenging. Try shooting something else, the same distance, not necessarily a bird, using some of the suggestions and post results. Good luck and most important, have fun!!
Mark

With IS and a fast enough shutter speed, you should be OK. However, a tripod or monopod will help steady everything, resulting in sharper focus. I shoot a great deal of sports with my 70 - 200 L f/2.8 ii. I sold my i version and just recently bought the ii version. Incredible lens.

Love your country. Camped across in the summer of 75'. Started at Niagara Falls and continued all the way to Vancouver Island. Fabulous. Had a Polaroid at the time. Wish I could redo with my current equipment.

Keep shooting. The Downy is terrific. Quite an improvement over the Cardinal. Looks like you have a wonderful spot for winter birds. We tried feeders but the squirrels won.

Ciao,
Mark

Oh Mark... Get the baffle or better yet I just seen a site explaining how to make one... I have two squirrel baffles and with them.....I WON!! They are amazing!! lol I got tired of feeding both ... but the squirrels now know they get what drops from the feeders and are well fed too... I paid $24.00 Cnd Dollars each for mine... That saved me in buying food but now I see the (make your own I will look at this too) They cannot get past them baffles.... Oh I am only a 2 hour drive from Niagara and love it... Would love to visit BC but travel has become expensive in Canada ... Its cheaper to travel to the States Crazy eh? Thanks for the compliment on the Woodpecker... Am working on the Tripod after my trip.... :)

O.k.. Everyone here has given you excellent advice. Now to put it to practical use. First thing; I have an almost identical setup with my bird feeder. It is about 4 ft. away from my dining room window and I set about 4-5 ft. inside of that at a table - no tripod. Unless you have really shaky hands, you don't need one. A tripod would be a smart thing to use regardless. I have yet to be accused of being smart. 2nd: you have an excellent camera and an excellent lens. Make sure that the I.S. is turned on as mentioned before. For my exposure, I use the spot metering most of the time. Try that. For focusing, I always use single point. Try that.

Now then, there are a few schools of thought on this. You should either use M mode or AV mode. Stay away from any type of shutter priority for now (TV). Let's go with M (manual) mode for now.

As you can see, I am trying to guide you to a practical start point. Let us now start with the really cool settings. In M mode. Set your ISO to 400 to start with. In your example, I would try to focus towards the back of his neck only because even with a single point focus, it will still read the feeder. The reason I chose ISO 400 for you is two fold: 1: you can use much faster shutter speeds and it allows for overcast light. 2: it helps with camera shake because you can use faster shutter speeds. That simple.

Set the aperture around F5.6 just for a start point. You can always change this later.

Now you are almost set. Look through your viewfinder. dial in the shutter speed to get those small bars as close to 0 as possible (I think that is how your camera works). You should have a good exposure at this point. Snap the picture. If by chance your shutter speed is around 1/100 sec. or so, you can lower the ISO to 200 for less noise and a sharper image. Remember what others have pointed out; your shutter speed should be somewhere around 300 or more with that particular lens when hand holding. If it is around 500 or slightly more, that is not a bad thing either. At this point, you can fool around and change the aperture to F6.3 - F7.1 or higher for a great depth of field. Just try not to have the shutter speed below 300 when doing this. If it does this at F7.1 for example, just bump the ISO back up to 400. Easy, right?

A good way to practice this if there are no birds around, simply stick a golf ball or something with texture about where you think the bird will be. I hope this was of some help.

If you wish to use AV mode instead, simply set your desired Aperture and ISO, and the camera will automatically select the shutter speed for you. Even easier yet, Huh? I hope this helps.