wonderful and very sharp. Great Job !!!!! Alan Nelson

Great shots, congrats. Alan Nelson

Your bird is a Northern Harrier, nice shot!

Great picture. Isn't fall color grand? Alan Nelson

Very nice images !!!!!!!!!

Great shot Susan and the bird is a Downy Woodpecker

Yes indeed they are American coots however the bird that is flying is a Cormorant. Depending on your location the bird is probably a Double-crested cormorant.

As has been stated before the shutter speed has nothing to do with it. Set your flashes to manual then take the power down to about 1/32 so you have a very short flash duration about 1/18000. Your flashes have to be in quite close to the bird (15 "). I use no less than three and some times six flashes all synced to the same setting. Set shutter speed to flash sync such as 1/250 and be sure to shoot in a shaded area so no ambient light strikes the subject. The flash duration and not the shutter speed is what controls the lighting of the bird. Take an out of focus picture of green back ground and make it into a print so you have a background that keeps your attention on the bird. Two front flashes and one on the background is a minimum number of flashes one should use and up to six can be used. All flashes should fire at the same time and in sync with each other. Further help can be found on the internet.

If you do every thing right you could get some thing like I took early this summer.

Look up (google) The Art of Photographing Hummingbirds by John & Barbara Gerlach. Purchase their booklet on the subject and all of your questions will be answered.

/Users/alan/Desktop/Mt Bluebird on fence copy.jpg

Mt. Bluebird photo. I too am a little long in the tooth so can appreciate trying to get birds quickly when the opportunity arrives especially at my age. It is just a lot of fun being out there and trying to do a goo job. One of my shots that was taken from a car window mount an on film and later scanned/Users/alan/Desktop/Mt Bluebird on fence copy.jpg

First Mt Blue Bird does not appear sharp and would suggest a tripod would help>

I'm quite sure you have a Hummingbird Moth, Hemaris thysbe rather than a real live hummingbird.