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This section covers all birds of prey except Owls, from our smallest the Merlin to the largest majestic Sea Eagle, from those that migrate here to breed like the Osprey to those which are resident all year like the Sparrowhawk. Photographing these presents it's own unique set of challenges as birds of prey for most of the day (unless provisioning for young) do very little and are perched up watching, sleeping, preening or digesting a meal. So you need to know an area that they frequent to hunt to have the greatest chance of success. Most of them are very quick so fast shutter speeds (1/2000 sec at least) are the order of the day. I do all of my photography in manual mode but especially so when trying to photograph a bird which may be transitioning between a bright sky and a dark background and back again in an instant. To help with this you can also adopt a feature most camera's have these days which is Auto ISO. Using this you can set the minimum shutter speed you require and the camera will automatically adjust the ISO to maintain that shutter speed. I find it's one less thing to thing about when you are concentrating on tracking a bird through your viewfinder.










































































































































































































