Birds are one of the most beautiful subjects to photograph, however they can also be one of the most difficult subjects to capture in a photograph. Most types of birds are quite shy and it is difficult to get close to them. The most chalenging thing about photographing birds is trying to capture them in their natural environment.The minimum focal length lens for capturing birds is a focal length of around 300mm, and even this may be too short on many occasions. If using a digital camera then the higher the Megapixel count the better, as more Megapixels will give you more capability to crop the image and still retain the detail. With digital SLR cameras there is basically two different size sensors, with Nikon cameras there is FX, full frame sensors and the DX, cropped sensors. The DX sensors are excellent for bird photography, as due to the cropped sensor, they give a multiplication factor to the lenses used. With DX sensors a 300mm lens effectively becomes a 450mm lens which is a great advantage for bird photography.Also tele-converters are available to use with the main lens. The tele-converters come with a multiplication factor of 1x,1.7x and 2x. These teleconverters will also multiply the focal length of the lens in use. Tele-converters will cause some light loss and they also can cause a small amount if image degradation.For serious bird photographers a lens of 400mm to 500mm is very desirable, these types of long lenses are very expensive.When working with extremely long lenses camera stability is of paramout importance and it is very important to provide some means of stability to stop camera movement. Camera movement can be reduced significantly by using lenses with vibration reduction (VR) or image stabilization (IS). Otrher options are to use a monopod or tripod and a remote cable release. The image of the bird of prey above has been captured using a hand held 3oomm lens.
