Quick Guide to photographing wild birds of prey

Hi all and welcome to my second 'quick guide'. You can download and print a free pdf here. Please check out my gallery to see examples of my wildlife photographs.

location
hide position upwind so hawks land facing you
tripod set as low as possible and use a ball head. 
bait bunnies, rodents etc. laid belly up 5-15m from hide 
large open area hawks need a bit of space to feel secure enough to land 
autumn is the best time of year. Hawks pair up in winter and raise chicks in spring/summer 
time of day doesn’t seem to matter 

camera settings
Camera settings depend on what the birds are doing. Here are suggestions for your 2 most likely needs. Use Nikon’s ‘U1’ and ‘U2’ user settings to switch between the two set ups quickly as behaviour changes. 

camera settings 1 for birds landing/fighting 
shutter mode shutter priority mode (S) 
shutter speed 1/1000 second 
shutter release high-speed continuous. This can be noisy and spook birds if used too much. 
aperture f4 
ISO auto (max 800) 
file quality raw 
metering centre spot. The bird will probably be a lot darker than the background. 

camera settings 2 once birds settle down you can switch to settings optimised for image quality. 
shutter mode aperture priority mode (A) 
shutter speed 1/500 second 
shutter release single frame release. Use quiet mode if available 
aperture f8 ISO 100 or the minimum that available light will allow 
file quality raw 
metering centre spot. The bird will probably be a lot darker than the background. 

lens 
medium to long telephoto I find 70-200mm the most useful. 
stabilisation not needed 
focus mode single centre point   

top tips 
manual focus pre-focus just behind your bait ready to catch a landing. 
flash to add a catchlight in birds eye, or fill light, risky though! 
don’t drink too much unless your hide has a toilet! 
fooling hawks Take a second person along for the walk to your location. Once you’re setup, they walk away and the hawks think it’s all clear. This works surprisingly well, even if you can’t see any hawks around, they can see you. 
keep quiet and still even in a hide 

checklist 
camera with charged batteries 
lens 
plenty of card storage 
tripod 
bait 
warm clothes