Bird Photography.

For bird photography you will need a telephoto lens of more than 300mm focal length.  As birds are very shy a zoom lens capable of more than 300mm focal length will enable you to get a closer look at birds sitting on tree tops far away.  A prime lens with fixed focal length of 400 or 600mm will also get the job done.

I had clicked this picture of the Indian Roller at Bandhavgarh, Madhya Pradesh.   It was shot with a Sigma 150-500mm lens mounted on a Canon 6D camera.  Since we were in a jeep inside the National Park I had to shoot from a top angle.  We were forbidden to get out of the jeep.

It is also essential to know the habits of birds.  When eating, after having caught the insect, birds like to toss up their prey and catch it.  It is their method of biting the insect before swallowing it.  Luckily my camera was on a continuous shooting mode and I managed to catch a shot of the insect in mid air as the Roller tossed it up.

This shrike was clicked at Bhandup Pumping Station, Mumbai.  One of the important tenets of bird photography is to get a reflection of the sun or flash in their eyes.  This is called as catchlight.  It can be seen in the picture above.