One of the hardest things in nature photography to capture successfully is a bird flying straight at the camera. Every millisecond the focus changes. It is impossible to focus manually, of course, and only until recently -- the last couple of years -- have digital cameras been able to track this kind of action and keep the subject in focus. I feel the best way to maintain focus throughout the flight path is to turn on all of the focus points. If you only have the center cluster of points selected and the bird veers off-center, the photo opportunity is lost because the autofocus lock is lost. If all the focus points are in use, there is a very good chance one or more of them will catch a part of the bird so the lens can instantly snap into focus. The larger the bird, the easier it is for the autofocus to act quickly. Such was the case with this Japanese crane on the island of Hokkaido in Japan. My settings for this shot were 1/1250, f/11, 800 ISO, and I used a 500mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter giving me 700mm of focal length. Notice how I got lucky in that both wing tips are just inside the frame.
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