Wild Birds of Europe

From this afternoon: Male chaffinch.
Male Chaffinch.jpg
 
The weirdest thing today. I enter the Flevopark, which is a park near my home where I have shot birds for 15 years. Today there was a great egret there. In a city park! I talked to a lady who said he had been in the park for a week, first at the other end of the park, now here. A great egret!

He was nearby, not shy but in an ugly place, in brown reeds. And the camera had great difficulty focusing on the eye. It wouldn't focus, not with any of my three AF modes. Not even with Spot-AF. Only if I focused on his body, then moved to his eye, would it focus. Two shots and it would lose focus again. And he was frame filling @500mm. Very odd. Anyway, I have a lot of shots. I will post a few more tomorrow. Just one with a quick edit in Affinity Photo, an app that I absolutely hate.
Great egret.jpg
 
Levina said:
The weirdest thing today. I enter the Flevopark, which is a park near my home where I have shot birds for 15 years. Today there was a great egret there. In a city park! I talked to a lady who said he had been in the park for a week, first at the other end of the park, now here. A great egret!

He was nearby, not shy but in an ugly place, in brown reeds. And the camera had great difficulty focusing on the eye. It wouldn't focus, not with any of my three AF modes. Not even with Spot-AF. Only if I focused on his body, then moved to his eye, would it focus. Two shots and it would lose focus again. And he was frame filling @500mm. Very odd. Anyway, I have a lot of shots. I will post a few more tomorrow. Just one with a quick edit in Affinity Photo, an app that I absolutely hate.
View attachment 10910
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Maybe this large in the frame and in this shape is not recognised as a bird?
 
pcs said:
Maybe this large in the frame and in this shape is not recognised as a bird?
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Could be. Or maybe the eye wasn't distinct enough? Something like that? I hardly ever saw the small eye focus square, mostly the larger one for the head or for the whole body. And also, when it did focus on the eye, it would lose it after 2 or 3 shots. But I can't believe the AF is malfunctioning because first time this happened and just after that I shot a grey heron and every single shot is in focus; it found the eye just perfectly. And also, if I focused on the bird's body it locked into focus right away. So maybe a big white bird, an eye that isn't easily recognisable maybe, and possibly also the kind of light? Or maybe a head that is small relative to its surroundings? I have no idea, but I was definitely struggling.
 
Levina said:
Could be. Or maybe the eye wasn't distinct enough? Something like that? I hardly ever saw the small eye focus square, mostly the larger one for the head or for the whole body. And also, when it did focus on the eye, it would lose it after 2 or 3 shots. But I can't believe the AF is malfunctioning because first time this happened and just after that I shot a grey heron and every single shot is in focus; it found the eye just perfectly. And also, if I focused on the bird's body it locked into focus right away. So maybe a big white bird, an eye that isn't easily recognisable maybe, and possibly also the kind of light? Or maybe a head that is small relative to its surroundings? I have no idea, but I was definitely struggling.
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Probably something like that, it's (very)good but not perfect.
 
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